hop on the train: a˜rail renaissance for˜europe...hop on the train: a˜rail renaissance...

28
Hop on the train: A Rail Renaissance for Europe How the 2021 European Year of Rail can support the European Green Deal and a sustainable recovery

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Page 1: Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe...Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe How the 2021 European Year of Rail can˜support the˜European Green Deal and a

Hop on the train A Rail Renaissancefor EuropeHow the 2021 European Year of Rail can support the European Green Deal and a sustainable recovery

AUTHORSLena Donat Manfred Treber (Germanwatch)Lukasz Janeczko (Civil Affairs Institute)Jakub Majewski (ProRail)Thomas Lespierre (France Nature Environnement)Jeremie Fosse (eco-union)Monica Vidal (Ecodes)Lucy Gilliam (TransportampEnvironment)

LAYOUT amp TYPESETTINGMagda WarszawaCover image copy Panimoni dreamstimecom

PUBLISHERGermanwatcheV

Office BonnKaiserstr 201D-53113 BonnPhone +49 (0)228 60 492-0 Fax -19

Office BerlinStresemannstr 72D-10963 BerlinPhone +49 (0)30 28 88 356-0 Fax -1

Internet wwwgermanwatchorgE-mail infogermanwatchorgOnline available httpsgermanwatchorgen19680

December 2020

ABOUT EUROPE ON RAILEurope on Rail is a network of non-profit organisations from Poland Germany France Spain and Brussels The network seeks to build support for a rail renaissance in Europe and for respective policy measures to boost cross-border passenger rail transport

Table of Contents

The European Year of Rail 2021 is a key driver for the European Green Deal 4

1 A European network launch direct international services on European arteries 6

2 Easy booking Make rail data sharing mandatory 10

3 Smart spending Use EU money to improve rail infrastructure capacity and connectivity 14

Other policy interventions for supporting European rail 16

Why is this important 18

4 Annex Specific recommendations for Poland Germany France and Spain 20

What can Poland do to boost European rail services 20

What can Germany do to boost European rail services 22

What can France do to boost European rail services 24

What can Spain do to boost European rail services 26

References 28

4

The European Year of Rail 2021 is a key driver for the European Green Deal

The European union has set itself the target to become climate neutral by 2050 Making mobility more sustainable is necessary for reaching this target Rail could play a key role in the future transport system because it is clean safe andreliable and it could become a symbol for the European Green Deal Eu-rope needs to become more climate friendly and Europe needs to grow closer together A strengthened European rail system could (1) better connect people and businesses in Europe (2) reduce transport emissions by cre-ating alternative options to road transport and aviation and (3) give a green boost to the European economy post-Covid-19

While many actors are praising railways the European rail systemis currently not in the best shape to take a central role in transport systems In almost all EU member states the importance of rail has declined over the last decades due to a heavy focus on road and aviation Rail accounts for only 8 of pas-senger transport and international rail services in particular are not suffi ciently developed Of the 365 cross-border rail links that once existed 149 were non-operational in 2018 and today not even all European capital cities are linked by direct rail services The rail system in the EU is currently not more than a patchwork of national systems with no comprehensive European strategy

In the European Year of Rail 2021 the Eu and national governments need to seize the opportunity to boost European rail services This is an excellent moment for initiating a rail renaissance for the following reasons (1) Covid-19 has reshuffl ed transport systems and travelling habits (2) with the European

5

Green Deal the Eu economy is onthe brink of a new era and (3) there is strong political support for rail from actors across the board

The options for improving international rail are right in front of us on a silver platter EU institutions and players tend to focus on infrastructure development but this is expensive and time consuming Also rail infrastructure projects are often not matched with measures to simultaneously improve service quality to make effi cient use of the new infrastructure There are low-hanging fruits available to the EU which could boost international rail services immediately without the need for large scale investments

PRIORITIES

PRIORITY

1Launch new direct

international services day and night

on existing infrastructure

PRIORITY

2Make booking

of international services attractive

and convenient

PRIORITY

3Invest in cross-border

infrastructure connections

and key corridors

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6

A European network launch direct international services on European arteries

International rail services between major European cities offer a large untapped potential Most rail services stop at the border or end just on the other side of the border Travellers often need to change trains several times to get from one capital to the othermdashwhich means additional stress and waiting time for the traveller The few direct services often stop too many times along the way and wait too often at major traffic nodes for track capacity Direct trains between all European major cities of neighbouring countries should be an abso-lute minimum but also other metropolitan areas should be connected with direct and frequent services Furthermore long-distance trains should connect well with regional rail services to establish a dense and attractive network

France and Spain have developed high-speed services but abandoned most regional lines

Both France and Spain have invested heavily in high-speed lines France has built 2800 kilometres (km) of high-speed lines since the 1980s which makes it one of the densest high-speed networks in Europe Unfortu-nately the cost of building and maintaining these lines has taken its toll on regional and local lines Between 1998 and 2018 131 of the total length of the French network was closed Local and re-gional infrastructure is aging and in urgent need of renewal For this reason the French government along with SNCF has recently shifted its priorities

to maintaining local lines and postponing several high-speed projectsIn Spain three out of four euros allocated in 2018 to rail infrastructure went into high-speed infra-structure Spain now has the longest high-speed network in Europe (around 3000 km) but it is the least used with only 13 billion passenger-kilometres in 2018 As a comparison France transported 49 bil-lion passenger-kilometres on a high-speed network of almost equal length (IRG 2020) In contrast only a minor share of the Spanish rail budget was invest-ed in suburban rail

1PRIORITY

7

Connecting long-distance trains to regional rail services does not always require new high-speed infrastructure Much of the infrastructure is already there especially in western Europe but is not utilised to its full potential A Euro-pean Commission report found that of 202 operational cross-border rail links only 57 were fully exploited in 2017 (European Commission 2018) In many cases more efficient use of existing high-speed or even conven-tional infrastructure and better coordination of timetables would be sufficient A well-coordinated timetable could also integrate regional and long-distance trains and improve connectivity in Europe

Currently the main obstacles to international services are

Q National perspective incumbent operators focus on their national market (especially on lucrative main routes) and often lack an international vision and experience (eg market potential administrative) Trains stop at lsquoat every haystackrsquo which might make sense from a national perspective but leads to additional travel times for international services

Q Administrative hurdles make international services less attractive for operators For example they need to apply for track capacity with various

WarsawmdashVilnius

WarsawmdashPrague

BerlinmdashCopenhagen

BerlinmdashBrussels

BerlinmdashParis

ParismdashMadrid

MadridmdashLisbon

Neighbours but no direct train betweenhellip

8 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

infrastructure managers drivers are required to speak several languages and rolling stock needs to be designed and licensed for different national electricity signalling and safety systems

What is needed is a European spirit in planning and management of rail services and start-up support for new international services In the 1960s and 70s a network of direct trans-continental services connected Europe across bordersmdashthe Trans-Eu-rope Express (TEE) This joint endeavour of French German Swiss Dutch Belgian Luxembourg and Italian railways only offered first-class services and only connected a number of countries in western and central Europe however the idea might serve as a starting point TEE trains only stopped at major cities and were often scheduled to allow travellers to do a roundtrip in a single day At its height in the

late 1970s the TEE served 31 routes The network also gave impetus to the de-velopment of interoperable trains that could run on different voltage systems

A new East-West European line WarsawmdashBerlinmdashBrusselsmdashParisA direct service between Warsaw and Paris could be the first test case for new international lines There are already direct services on the following sections WarsawmdashBerlin (6h) BerlinmdashCologne ColognemdashBrussels BrusselsmdashParis (1h30)The TEE20 study assumes that WarsawmdashParis journey can currently be done in 13h15 with in-frastructure improvements travel time could be reduced to 12h45 (BMVI 2020) There is already rolling stock (TGV) available that is certified in Ger-many Belgium and France While the certification process in Poland is ongoing the trial service could start with BerlinmdashParisThe route would have a significant potential to shift flights to rail as some sections are heavily frequent-ed flight routes There are more than five million passengers every year who fly the total distance WarsawmdashParis or smaller sections of it For in-stance between Cologne and Paris an average of more than 2500 people fly every day and between Berlin and Paris 3000 (in 2019 Eurostat 2020)

Germany is a key player for new European rail servicesDue to its central location in the EU Germany is crucially important for a European rail network Yet running international services through Germany is difficult as

Q Germany is one of the few EU member states that does not place public service obligations onlong-distance rail services

Q the German infrastructure manager DB Netz charges one of the highest mark-ups on track access charges in the EU Many other EU mem-ber states charge only direct costs for infra-structure use and no additional mark-ups

Q responsibility for train services is devolved to re-gional government cross-border coordination with Germany is more difficult than with other EU member states

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9A EuROPEAN NET WORk

A few decades ago countries in Europe were still connected via many night train routes but most of these have been discontinued These night trains were important connections particularly for longer distances Austrian rail operator OumlBB has begun to revive some of the routes

In September 2020 the German government proposed reviving the TEE idea with eight core international routes together with a network of European night trains (BMVI 2020) The idea of a TEE20 is a good start to lsquoEuropeanisingrsquo train services and overcoming some of the major hur-dles The proposed network could then be ex-panded to reach further into SpainPortugal and south and eastern Europe

How can the EU launch new international rail ser-vices in the short term

Q Get started Agree on one or two corridors to start with (eg WarsawmdashBerlinmdashBrusselsmdashParis or AmsterdammdashParismdashBarcelona)

Q Corridor coordination Task the European Railway Agency (ERA) with coordinating rail ser-vices on these corridors to create a one-stop shop for train operators The agency could provide information on which rolling stock is required and the frequency and speed of the services It could facilitate coordination between infrastructure managers to ensure that services get the required track slots for fast and smooth journeys

Q Start-up support Determine those sections of the corridor that the service can run on a commercial basis and those where it needs subsidies (at least to get started) start-up support should be tied to the condi-tion that low-price tickets are available to make the service accessible to price-sensitive passengers

Q Vision Agree on a comprehensive network of European day and night trains with trains crossing external EU borders into the neighbourhood (especially to the uk Western Balkans Turkey ukraine Belarus and Russia)

A new NorthmdashSouth European line AmsterdammdashBarcelonaAnother test case could be a direct service between Amsterdam and Barcelona Currently there are trains making this journey in three segments Am-sterdammdashBrussels (2h30) BrusselsmdashLyon (3h45) and LyonmdashBarcelona (5h)mdasha total of 11 hours 15 minutes A direct train could connect Amsterdam and Barcelona in 10h15 Rolling stock is available for this route the Siemens Velaro train is certified in Netherlands Belgium France and Spain The route would have significant potential to shift travel from air to rail For example there are on average 6500 people flying from Paris to Barce-lona each day In 2019 almost 85 million people took a flight on the AmsterdammdashBarcelona route or smaller sections of it (Eurostat 2020)

WarsawBerlinHanover

Cologne

Frankfurt

KarlsruheFreiburg

Basel

Lyon

Milan

Bologna

Rome

Montpellier

PerpignanBarcelona

Mulhouse

Amsterdam

Short-term implementation of the TEE20

Sour

ce B

MVI

(202

0)

10

Easy booking Make rail data sharing mandatory

Booking international flights is very easy but buying international rail tickets is the opposite Passengers cannot easily find and compare all available con-nections and prices and bear the risk of delays on the way That needs to change travelling by rail needs to become at least as easy as travelling by plane Consumers should be able to book rail tickets for any connection in the Eu via one-stop shops In the best case this should integrate with other sustainable modes for the first and last miles of the passengerrsquos journey such asbuses trams shared bikes etc

It is not possible to book a train ticket FrankfurtmdashBarcelona onlineIf you try to buy a train ticket from Frankfurt to Barcelona this is what you find

Q Deutsche Bahn shows two connections (fastest is 13h04) that reach Barce-lona within the same day but no tickets are sold

Q SNCF shows no connections Q RENFE shows no connections and this information is available only in Spanish Q Trainline offers tickets for three connections which are different from the

Deutsche Bahn connections and require at least 25 hours of travelling Q Omio shows no connection

The only possible ways to book the trip from Frankfurt to Barcelona are to buy tickets for segments of the journey from the different operatorsrsquo websites con-tact an offline travel agent or queue up at one of the few remaining Deutsche Bahn ticket sale desksAs a comparison Google Flights search shows for the same day approximately 60 connections even during the Covid-19 pandemic

2PRIORITY

11

The Eu has trusted the rail sector to find its own solution but that sector has delayed progress for years Technical solu-tions for integrating information from different train providers are available Independent online ticket vendors like Trainline Omio etc try to assemble tickets from different operators but their websites do not yet show all available rail connections and ticket offers This is because rail operators are reluctant to share all the necessary data with other operators or with independent ticket vendors

The EU needs to require rail operators to share all nec-essary data for easy booking of international rail trips European law currently obliges transport operators to share only some basic data such as static travel and traffic data (19262017 Delegated Regulation of the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) Directive) The regulation does not cover fare data and also leaves it open to member states to require dynamic travel and traffic data (eg information on platform numbers and changes accurate seat plans real-time delays and cancellations predicted arrival time) These data are critical for a seamless journey and for passengers to be able to find alternative connections in case of disruptions (European Commission 2019)

Finland shows the way for multimodal ticketingFinland is the European frontrunner when it comes to multimodal ticketing The 2018 Transport Act obliges all mo-bility service providers to grant access to essential data sales interfaces and reservation interfaces via an Applica-tion Programming Interface (API) The law thus covers not only rail but also public road services Mobility service providers are obliged to cooperate and to enter into agreements based on criteria set out in the Transport Act The Finnish Transport Agency is responsible for monitoring the supply and demand of mobility services and produces statistics from the data ob-tained (European Commission 2019)

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12 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

Some member states move beyond that regulation while others implement only the absolute minimum resulting in legal fragmentation across the EU In Germany for instance Deutsche Bahn (DB) data on timetables and planned disruptions is open to ticket vendors but not data on real-time platforms real-time delays and cancellations or next-day information on delays and cancellation (which is required for claiming compensation)

The EU needs to establish a comprehensive multimodal legal framework for booking ticketing and payment services In its 2021 Work Programme the European Commission announced it would revise the ITS Directive and propose a multimodal ticketing initiative This initiative needs to fulfil the fol-lowing criteria

Q The framework will make access to static and dynamic data manda-tory (including routes stops timetables prices and the availability and accessibility of services)

Q Rail operators will be required to share data via an open Application Programming Interface (API) which must be in machine readable for-mat Many operators have so far failed to build interfaces into their own booking systems

Q The framework should allow ticket vendors to assemble their own discount and promotion packages to compete in an open ticketing market

The EU needs to establish rules to guaran-tee that international rail passengers arrive at their final destination and can hop on the next train in case of missed train connections Rail pas-sengers often need to buy individual tickets from different rail operators for a multi-leg journeymdashand under current rules passengers bear the risk if a connection is missed Rail operators are cur-rently not obliged to sell so-called lsquothrough ticketsrsquo that is one ticket contract for multi-leg journey with a guarantee to arrive at the final destination Also independent ticket vendors that assemble tickets from various operators do not offer such an lsquoarrival guaranteersquo As there are only a few direct interna-tional train connections between major European cities this is a concern for passengers

The BerlinmdashBrussels roulettemdash no lsquohop on the next trainrsquoWhen travelling by train from Berlin to Brussels passengers need to change trains in Cologne Fre-quently the ICE train (operated by DB) from Berlin to Cologne is delayed and travellers miss their con-nection From Cologne to Brussels there is only one ICE train every two hours but a Thalys train several times a day in the lsquointerim slotsrsquo Yet the DB traveller is not allowed to take the Thalys trains to Brussels earlier than the next ICE train because there is no lsquohop on the next trainrsquo agreement between Thalys and DB meaning travellers oftenneed 08h49 in-stead of 06h49 for the trip

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13EASY BOOkING

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14

Smart spending Use EU money to improve rail infrastructure capacity and connectivity

EU funding (cohesion funding Connecting Europe Facility Recovery and Resil-ience Facility) makes up an important share of overall transport infrastructure funding especially in the new member states Yet in the past Eu transport funding has not always been used wisely Too much funding went into road and airports and too little into rail This is especially the case for EU cohesion fund-ing around 50 of transport cohesion funding goes into road and only 25 into rail projects Funding decisions are based on plans prepared by the

respective member state and negotiated between member states and the European Commission

European Investment Bank (EIB) transport lending is still supporting unsustainable infrastructure such as airports and new motorway projects Transport is the single largest sector of EIB activity accounting for about 1 in every 4 euros invested by the bank The bank is however in the process of revising both its climate (2020) and transport policies (2021)

Too much money also goes into mega-projects with exploding costs and long delays The Eu-ropean Court of Auditors (2018) cautioned that projects were often chosen based on political de-cisions and not on thorough cost-benefit analyses

3

Only one out of seven border crossings between Germany and Poland is electrifiedThere were once 24 rail links between Germany and Poland of which only seven remain in operation Yet only the border crossing at Frankfurt (Oder) is electrified The trains from Berlin to Warsaw or to Gdansk operate on this line The remaining six border crossings are not yet electrified meaning that trains need to run on diesel The CottbusmdashLegnica link is particularly relevant to connect Berlin to densely populated Southern Poland (Wroclaw Silesia Krakow) To electrify this 138 km link would cost approximately euro100 million but could reduce travel time between Berlin and Wroclaw from currently 45 hours to only 3 hours because Eurocity trains could take a more direct route (currently going through Frankfurt (Oder)) For comparison before the 2nd World War travel time was only 25 hours

PRIORITY

15

The evaluated high-speed projects took 16 years on average cost on average euro25 million per track km but often do not deliver on expectations average speeds rarely reach 200 kmh and only few lines transported more than nine million passengers per year (the benchmark for a successful high-speed line) In contrast small-scale interventions with greater European potential are of-ten not implemented This can be electrification constructing a second track or bypasses to increase capacity and speed or closing smaller missing links on the border

The European Court of Auditors also noted a lack of coordination of cross-border infrastructure projects Member states take a national perspec-tive and do not prioritise closing cross-border gaps This means that infrastructure might have been completed on one side of the border but delayed by years on the other side

The EU should ensure that EU funding

Q Supports modal shift towards rail In the negotiations of the Operational Programmes for Cohesion funding the European Commis-sion should ensure that more budget goes to rail than to road and no new roads are financedin the old member states as they al-ready have a sufficiently dense road network The European Commission should also ask member states to present modal shift tar-gets if they want to access funds for trans-port under the Recovery and Resilience Facility The EIB should in the upcoming review of its Transport Strategy decide to stop funding any airport infrastructure or road network expansion and instead increase funding for electric cross-border rail projects and rolling stock

Q Prioritises rail projects essential for intra-European rail services Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funding should only go into projects that are key to cross-border connectivity (eg for key corridors) and should focus more on low-hanging fruits than on new mega-projects Such inter-ventions should be based on sound cost-benefit analysis When evaluating

Spain has only one international long-distance rail lineSpain has invested massively into high-speed lines over the last decades with euro14 billion (25 of total investment) coming from Eu funds (Inter-national Railway Journal 2020) Yet there is only one international high-speed rail line connecting Barcelona with Montpellier in France The tracks are underused with only two services per day For regional services there are additional border crossings in Portbou-Perpignan (Mediterranean coast) IrunHendaye (Atlantic coast) and Puigcerda (Pyrenees) but none of them is serviced frequently Another difficulty on these regional lines is that trains need to change between standard and Ibe-rian track gauge at the borderThe connection between Spain and Portugal is even worse a rail trip from Madrid to Lisbon (625 km) takes 10h50 and requires three changes as only regional lines operate across borders There are border crossings in Badajoz-Elvas Fregenada-Bar-ca de Alva and Vigo-Porto but they are under-used The only long-distance line to Portugal is a night train from HendayeIrun to Lisbon (currently sus-pended due to Covid-19) The TEN-T network plan foresees a high-speed connection between Madrid and Lisbon as part of the core network but the project is currently not being pursued by either the Portuguese or the Spanish government

16 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

member statesrsquo operational programmes for cohesion fundingrecovery funding the European Commission should suggest to member states that they include rail projects that are key tothe functioning of a European rail network

Q Promotes infrastructure interventions which are accompanied by transformative measures When accessing EU rail infrastructure funding member states should be required to present accompanying policy measures which ensure that the infrastructure is used efficiently

Other policy interventions for supporting European rail

Apart from the above mentioned priorities the EU and member states should address the following obstacles

Q International rail has no strong voice in the current system because member states and incumbent railway operators tend to focus on their own national markets There is also a lack of coordination of infrastructure managers across borders The EU should strengthen the European Rail Agency (ERA) as a traffic control and coordination authority for international rail transport The ERA should be entrusted with forecasting demand assessing the level of required services (destination frequency speed) and allocating capacities The ERA could identify routes that may be of interest to travellers but which are not yet fully exploited and could make this information available to train operators It could also determine which sections of the desired network services would be

Examples of bordercrossings between Spain France Belgium Germany and Poland that need urgent attention

Member States involved Border crossing Important for Required action

Germany mdash Poland Cottbus mdash Forst mdash  Legnica

connecting Berlin with southern Poland electrification of 138 km

France mdash Germany Colmar mdash Freiburg connecting regions build 1 km bridge

Spain mdash France Astigarraga mdash IrunthinspHendaye mdash Bayonne

connecting Bordeaux to northern Spain

upgrade cross-border section

Spain mdash France (Pau) Bedous mdash Canfranc (Zaragoza)

Reconnect central corridor in the Pyrenees

Refurbishment of 30 km railtrack on French side

17SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

commercially viable and where public service obligations (PSOs) would be needed in order to guarantee a service

Q Night train operators and new rail operators have an especially hard time finding trains that can operate in more than one country The second-hand market for interoperable rolling stock and night trains is limited ordering an entire new fleet is prohibitively expensive and no func-tioning leasing market is in place for this specific segment The Eu and member states should help to find new creative finance mechanisms for overcoming the lack of rolling stock and consider establishing a publicly managed rolling stock pool

Q Airlines pay no tax on kerosene receive 85 of allowances of the European Emissions Trading Scheme free of charge and pay no VAT on international tickets This creates an uneven playing field between aviation and rail The European Commission has announced it will review both the EU Energy Taxation Directive and the EU ETS Directive in 2021 It is crucial to use this opportunity to introduce a kerosene tax in-troduce full auctioning for aviation allowances in the EU ETS and create a stronger price for emission allowances

Q Track access charges are prohibitively high in some EU member states EU Regulation suggests that charges should cover only marginal costs but some member states ask for much higher mark ups for example on highly frequented routes or during rush hours This creates an unfair advantage for road transport which pays only infrastructure charges on approximately 3 of the Eu road network For freight rail some member states have reduced charges but not so for passenger rail EU member states should agree to reduce track access charges to direct cost levels This would increase the use of tracks and could bring higher in-come for infrastructure managers in return During the transition period alternative funding to cover losses of infrastructure managers could come from ETS auctioning revenues

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18 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

Why is this important

Rail can help the EU to achieve its climate targets

Rail is the cleanest mode of transport A flight from Paris to Berlin causes at least six times the CO2 emissions of a train journey Counting the also non-CO2 impacts of aviation the flight is responsible for 18 times the climate impact of a rail trip With further electrification and decarbonisation of power generation the carbon emissions of rail could be reduced to close to zero

Intra-European flights on distances less than 1000 km are estimated to cause 28 MtCO2 every year without counting the non-CO2 impacts Seventeen of the 20 most frequented air routes in Europe are for distances less than 700 km In theory almost all of these journeys could be shifted to rail

The better European cities are connected by rail the easier it is to move trans-port away from high-polluting transport modes such as aviation and cars The more attractive and easy-to-use rail services are the more likely it is that people will want to switch

Rail can be a driver for European recovery post-Covid-19

The rail sector employs more than 23 million people (directly and indirectly) and creates a gross value added of euro143 billion of which euro66 billion is created directly by the sector This is larger than the gross value added of air transport The Eu rail supply industry accounts for around 20 of the global market

Rail infrastructure investments usually need more time but add to mid-term stability and growth expectations in the construction sector Some rail in-frastructure modernisation projects could be realised rapidlymdashfor example track switches bypasses European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) The investments needed for the realisation of the Trans-European Transport (TEN-T) core network for example is estimated to create euro45 trillion cumulated GDP and 13 million job-years EU-wide

19SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

Rail connects people cities and countries

In contrast to aviation rail not only services highly frequented core routes but also has a network that reaches into remote regions This network was much more dense 50 years ago both within countries and in border regions While many connections are not in use anymore because of massive divestment from rail many could easily be reinstalled A network of fast long-distance connections combined with dense regional services could make Europeans feel connected to and part of the EU

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20

Annex Specific recommendations for Poland Germany France and Spain

What can Poland do to boost European rail services

1 Create fair conditions for infrastructure access

The current system of infrastructure access charges is extremely asymmetric and strongly favours road over rail transport Rail currently pays infrastructure access charges on 100 of the railway network (including layovers or the use of railway stations) while road (bus) operators pay charges only on 1 of Pol-ish roads and individual drivers pay only for selected sections of motorways representing around 02 of the entire network Infrastructure charges of road and rail should be aligned in all market segmentsmdashincluding international long-distance transport

The second problem is the high level of track access charges for rail operators As a first step track access charges in Poland should be reduced to the level of costs directly induced by the train journey This would reduce charges from the current 60 of total infrastructure maintenance costs to 30 These charges should go entirely to the Railway Fund and thus contribute to the development and construction of new railway lines (as is the case with roads) Maintenance costs should be covered through the general state budget ultimately the sys-tem of charges for transport infrastructure should be dependent on the level of external costs (pollution noise traffic safety etc)

4

21

2 Invest in interoperable rolling stock for international connections including night trains

The lack of interoperable rolling stock is a key obstacle for the launch of new international long-distance connections Due to the very limited number of in-ternational connections and small passenger flows it is not a priority for carrier investment As a result international rail operatorsmdashespecially night trainsmdashhave access only to old wagons of poor quality In addition international trains waste time at borders due to the lack of multi-system locomotives which could run on different voltage and safety systems In Poland an estimated 40 locomo-tives and approximately 350 wagons are needed to operate connections with other Eu countries (Germany Czech Republic Slovakia and Lithuania) To im-prove the quality and frequency of international connections Poland should launch an investment programme for interoperable rolling stock This could also help the country negotiate with the European union on the co-financing of rolling stock or even an Eu-financed rolling stock pool Currently the long-dis-tance segment is the only area of passenger railway in Poland not covered by any EU support programme for rolling stock

3 Elimination of barriers to entry for new railway carriers

One of the basic problems of the international transport offer is its malad-justment to modern market needs Trains run infrequently tickets are much more expensive than domestic services and there are no discounts available on international trains The reason is that the organisation of connections is left to the incumbent railway carriers from individual countries and inflexi-ble procedures for their cooperation (including archaic regulations on tariffs and ticket sales) The example of low-cost airlines shows that an effective instrument for changing this situation is opening the market to competition In the case of commercial services full deregulation of the market should be achieved Where financial support (PSO) is required to maintain traffic compet-itive tenders for carrier selection should be obligatory in accordance with the provisions of the Fourth Railway Package In the case of Poland it is essential to review and clarify the rules for market access The current regulation leaves room for misinterpretation and is commonly used to block the entry of new entrants to the market which may exert positive pressure on the quality scope and accessibility of services for passengers

22 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Germany do to boost European rail services

1 Reduce track access charges for passenger trains

According to Eu law track access charges should generally only reflect direct costs (wear and tear costs) but Germany for instance makes use of an ex-emption and charges full costs for passenger trains (ie including infrastructure maintenance costs) The German track access charges are as a consequence five times as high as the mere direct costs would be (CERRE 2018) This results in very high access charges for train operators accounting for around a third of total operation costs The average costs per kilometre for long-distance trains rose by 18 between 2013 and 2018 For freight rail Germany has already decided to halve its track access charges The same approach to passenger rail could be a first step in incentivising more international services and to make rail more competitive with other transport modes The lost income for infra-structure managers would need to come from Germanyrsquos general budget

2 Establish a competent national authority for long-distance rail

Germany is the only Eu member state without a national contracting authority for rail transport When Germany reformed its rail system in the 1990s it es-tablished in each of the federal states (Bundeslaumlnder) at least one contract-ing authority responsible for organising and ordering regional rail passenger services and for determining public service obligations There are now 27 re-gional contracting authorities but no such authority at federal level Article 87e(4) of the German constitution obliges the federal government to guarantee non-regional services and provides the legal basis for establishing a national contracting authority by law Yet after more than two decades Germany has still not introduced such a law meaning that all long-distancetrains need to run solely on a commercial basis

This has led to gaps in the national network of long-distance trains and raises the question of how Germany can implement its so-called lsquoDeutschlandtaktrsquo

23ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

an integrated timetable for 2030 which includes routes not commercially via-ble It also makes it more difficult to run international trains through Germany Operating international trains is usually more costly because of higher coor-dination and administration costs and the need to buy or lease interoperable rolling stock In contrast to many other Eu member states Germany provides no support for long-distance trains in the form of public service obligations (PSOs) and also seems to object toother governments covering the German part of the route with PSOs as a recent feasibility study on a StockholmmdashBrus-sels night train revealed

3 Electrify border crossings to Poland and Czech Republic

Most international long-distance trains today run on electricity which is not only cleaner but also faster Only 61 of Germanyrsquos railway network is elec-trified and only 27 of its 57 border crossings into neighbouring countries are electrified Most non-electrified border crossings are on the eastern borders 13 into the Czech Republic and eight into Poland The lack of electrification usually means that locomotives need to be changed at the border adding to travel times and that many faster trains cannot run on those sections To better connect with the east Germany should urgently electrify the following sections

Q CottbusmdashForstmdashLegnica 138 km electrification would speed up services from Berlin to Wroclaw and krakow

Q DresdenmdashGoumlrlitzmdashZgorzelec 95 km electrification would improve train connections between Dresden and Wrocław

Q RegensburgmdashFurth im Wald 131 km electrification would speed up ser-vices from Munich to Prague to less than four hours

Q NuumlrnbergmdashSchirndingmdashCheb 140 km electrification would reduce travel time between Nuremberg and Prague to less than four hours

copy Natalya Vilman dreamstimecom

24 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can France do to boost European rail services

1 Initiate a national strategy for a modal shift from air to rail

Massive modal shift is no longer an option but a necessity if France is to reach its targets of CO2 emissions Yet there is no long-term plan to reduce the number of flights taken for European travel Such a strategy is much needed as it would allow for long-term planning better coordination with the ERA and better coordination between long-distance and local trains

With an extensive network of railways lines already in place international con-nections do not require any major infrastructure works and couldbe created very quickly What is lacking is an integrated strategy to promote train over air for domestic and European travel France should set clear objectives in modal shift by 2030 and 2050 in accordance with national low carbon strategy (SNBC)

As long- and medium-distance train connections (both day and night ) can be an important asset to reach French climate targets France should create further incentives to boost this modal shift introducing VAT on European flights and reducing VAT on train travel Airport expansion projects in France should also be halted as they undermine efforts towards low emission mobility

2 Ease emergence of new players for long-distance connections

As the European rail market opens private and lsquohistoricrsquo incumbents will have the opportunity to operate new European connections This opening of the Eu-ropean train market will be an opportunity for new train companies to operate these trans-European connections To encourage lsquonewcomersrsquo France should guarantee that the services of these private companies will be able to set up their businesses and operate without obstacles set track access charges to its direct costs level and guarantee that newcomers will have access to public infrastructure and tracks

25ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

The opening of the market could also be an opportunity for incumbents such as SNCF As has been done with Thalys or Eurostar SNCF should initiate a part-nership with other national andor private companies to operate one or several of the European corridors that will be designed

It is quite possible to lsquostart smallrsquo operating only on the sections where infra-structure and rolling stock are compatible (ParismdashBerlin for example) and gradually extend the lines to reach full potential such as ParismdashWarsaw

3 Invest in night train rolling stock

Night trains can be a positive alternative to intra-Eu-ropean flights They can serve both domestic and international destinations However night trains in France have been on a downslide for several years The French government has recently announced that two new national train lines will be reopened This trend should be continued as the number of night trains gradually increases and night train lines extended to international destinations

For the night train renaissance France should in-vest euro150 million each year in rolling stock as the current stock is aging and far too limited This in-vestment will incentivise industries to produce new high-quality wagons designed for the night trains

At night some of the French track capacity is re-served for maintenance work and cannot be usedThis challenge can be overcome by starting with a small number of routes providing alternative routes when needed andor subsidising SNCF Reacute-seau so that maintenance work during the night can be lsquoun-optimisedrsquo that is take place over a longer period but without stopping traffic at night copy

Car

abin

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26 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Spain do to boost European rail services

1 Refurbish upgrade and finalise cross-border connections between Spain Portugal and France

Cross-border connections between Spain and its neighbouring countries need an urgent upgrade to allow smooth fast and convenient passenger trips be-tween major southern European cities In the Basque country the rail lines between Hendaye and Irun should be quickly refurbished to avoid unneces-sary stop-overs and guarantee the integration of French high-speed network (ParismdashBordeauxmdashHendaye) with the Spanish high-speed line in construction between DonostiaBilbao and Vittoria (known as Basque Y) and then towards Madrid and other Spanish cities

In Central Pyrenees the historical line between Pau (Nouvelle Aquitaine) and Zaragoza (Aragon) via the monumental Canfranc International station should be relaunched by building the missing 30 km between Bedous (France) and Canfranc (Spain) This final work will increase freight and passenger connectiv-ity improve cross-border security and boost the economy of isolated regions highly dependent on tourism agriculture and industry

On the Atlantic side the cities of Lisbon and Madrid as well as Santiago de Com-postela (Galicia) and Porto need to be integrated into a high-performance network based on the upgrade of outdated rail tracks This connection would ensure the better cohesion and connection of geographically remote and pe-ripheral cities and regions with the rest of the European capitals

2 Relaunch night train services and long-distance conventional lines

Most of the night time and conventional trains between major southern Euro-pean cities (such as MadridmdashParis BarcelonamdashParis MadridmdashBarcelona Ma-dridmdashLisbon) have been abandoned in the last decade due to aggressive and unfair competition from low-cost airlines and long-distance buses However the climate crisis is pushing citizens towards low-carbon transport such as rail

27ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

Spanish citizens deserve affordable night trains and renovated long-distance trains that allow them to save time carbon and money avoiding expensive night hotels at origin and destination Relaunching cross-regional train lines is also a way to support safe inclusive and sustainable tourism in Mediterranean countries dramatically affected by the Covid crisis and related lockdowns

3 Increase the use of the network by opening the market and levelling the playing field

Spain has the longest high-speed network in Europe (2675 km) but it is the least used with only 13 billion passenger-kilometres in 2018 As a comparison France transported 49 billion passenger-km on a high-speed network of almost equal length (2548 km) When looking at passenger and freight rail together use intensity of the Spanish rail network (34 trains per day per route km) is also very low compared to the rest of Europe (146 in the Netherlands 96 in the UK 78 in Germany 43 in France)

As a large part of the high-speed infrastructure has been financed by the Eu the poor performance of rail in Spain is clearly an inefficient use of public money that should be solved by appropriate regulation and incentives The new law for sustainable mobility in the making is a unique opportunity to reverse those negative trends and fix historical pitfalls The opening of the network to new rail operators planned in 2021 should also contribute to increasing the number of passengers without building any new infrastructure Finally the rules for transport operators should be fair between air road and trains by integrating the environmental and social externalities and incentivising cleaner alternatives

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28

References

BMVI (2020) Trans-Europe Express 20 httpswwwbmvideSharedDocsENDocumentsKinnovative-rail-transport-overnight-21-09-2020pdf__blob=publicationFile (accessed 26 November 2020)

CERRE (2018) Track Access ChargesmdashCase Study Germany httpscerreorgsitescerrefiles180509_CERRE_TrackAccessCharges_CaseStudy_Germa-ny_Finalpdf (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2018) Comprehensive analysis of the existing cross-bor-der rail transport connections and missing links on the internal EU borders httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-detail-publicatione68ec381-62f7-11e8-ab9c-01aa75ed71a1language-en (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2019) Remaining Challenges for EU-wide integrated ticketing and payment services httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-de-tail-publicationaf05b3eb-df43-11e9-9c4e-01aa75ed71a1 (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Court of Auditors (2018) A European high-speed rail network not a reality but an ineffective patchwork ECA Special Report httpswwwecaeuropaeuenPagesDocItemaspxdid=46398 (accessed 26 Novem-ber 2020)

Eurostat (2020) Air passenger transport between the main airports (data sets avia_par_fr avia_par_pl avia_par_de avia_par_es avia_par_b) httpseceuropaeueurostatwebmainhome (accessed 26 November 2020)

Independent Regulatorrsquos Group (IRG) (2020) 8th IRG-Rail Market Monitoring Report httpsirg-raileuirgdocumentsmarket-monitoring (accessed 26 November 2020)

International Railway Journal (2020) Spain urged to rebalance high-speed and suburban rail development 7 August 2020 httpswwwrailjournalcompassengerhigh-speedspain-urged-to-rebalance-high-speed-and-subur-ban-rail-investment (accessed 26 November 2020)

Page 2: Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe...Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe How the 2021 European Year of Rail can˜support the˜European Green Deal and a

AUTHORSLena Donat Manfred Treber (Germanwatch)Lukasz Janeczko (Civil Affairs Institute)Jakub Majewski (ProRail)Thomas Lespierre (France Nature Environnement)Jeremie Fosse (eco-union)Monica Vidal (Ecodes)Lucy Gilliam (TransportampEnvironment)

LAYOUT amp TYPESETTINGMagda WarszawaCover image copy Panimoni dreamstimecom

PUBLISHERGermanwatcheV

Office BonnKaiserstr 201D-53113 BonnPhone +49 (0)228 60 492-0 Fax -19

Office BerlinStresemannstr 72D-10963 BerlinPhone +49 (0)30 28 88 356-0 Fax -1

Internet wwwgermanwatchorgE-mail infogermanwatchorgOnline available httpsgermanwatchorgen19680

December 2020

ABOUT EUROPE ON RAILEurope on Rail is a network of non-profit organisations from Poland Germany France Spain and Brussels The network seeks to build support for a rail renaissance in Europe and for respective policy measures to boost cross-border passenger rail transport

Table of Contents

The European Year of Rail 2021 is a key driver for the European Green Deal 4

1 A European network launch direct international services on European arteries 6

2 Easy booking Make rail data sharing mandatory 10

3 Smart spending Use EU money to improve rail infrastructure capacity and connectivity 14

Other policy interventions for supporting European rail 16

Why is this important 18

4 Annex Specific recommendations for Poland Germany France and Spain 20

What can Poland do to boost European rail services 20

What can Germany do to boost European rail services 22

What can France do to boost European rail services 24

What can Spain do to boost European rail services 26

References 28

4

The European Year of Rail 2021 is a key driver for the European Green Deal

The European union has set itself the target to become climate neutral by 2050 Making mobility more sustainable is necessary for reaching this target Rail could play a key role in the future transport system because it is clean safe andreliable and it could become a symbol for the European Green Deal Eu-rope needs to become more climate friendly and Europe needs to grow closer together A strengthened European rail system could (1) better connect people and businesses in Europe (2) reduce transport emissions by cre-ating alternative options to road transport and aviation and (3) give a green boost to the European economy post-Covid-19

While many actors are praising railways the European rail systemis currently not in the best shape to take a central role in transport systems In almost all EU member states the importance of rail has declined over the last decades due to a heavy focus on road and aviation Rail accounts for only 8 of pas-senger transport and international rail services in particular are not suffi ciently developed Of the 365 cross-border rail links that once existed 149 were non-operational in 2018 and today not even all European capital cities are linked by direct rail services The rail system in the EU is currently not more than a patchwork of national systems with no comprehensive European strategy

In the European Year of Rail 2021 the Eu and national governments need to seize the opportunity to boost European rail services This is an excellent moment for initiating a rail renaissance for the following reasons (1) Covid-19 has reshuffl ed transport systems and travelling habits (2) with the European

5

Green Deal the Eu economy is onthe brink of a new era and (3) there is strong political support for rail from actors across the board

The options for improving international rail are right in front of us on a silver platter EU institutions and players tend to focus on infrastructure development but this is expensive and time consuming Also rail infrastructure projects are often not matched with measures to simultaneously improve service quality to make effi cient use of the new infrastructure There are low-hanging fruits available to the EU which could boost international rail services immediately without the need for large scale investments

PRIORITIES

PRIORITY

1Launch new direct

international services day and night

on existing infrastructure

PRIORITY

2Make booking

of international services attractive

and convenient

PRIORITY

3Invest in cross-border

infrastructure connections

and key corridors

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6

A European network launch direct international services on European arteries

International rail services between major European cities offer a large untapped potential Most rail services stop at the border or end just on the other side of the border Travellers often need to change trains several times to get from one capital to the othermdashwhich means additional stress and waiting time for the traveller The few direct services often stop too many times along the way and wait too often at major traffic nodes for track capacity Direct trains between all European major cities of neighbouring countries should be an abso-lute minimum but also other metropolitan areas should be connected with direct and frequent services Furthermore long-distance trains should connect well with regional rail services to establish a dense and attractive network

France and Spain have developed high-speed services but abandoned most regional lines

Both France and Spain have invested heavily in high-speed lines France has built 2800 kilometres (km) of high-speed lines since the 1980s which makes it one of the densest high-speed networks in Europe Unfortu-nately the cost of building and maintaining these lines has taken its toll on regional and local lines Between 1998 and 2018 131 of the total length of the French network was closed Local and re-gional infrastructure is aging and in urgent need of renewal For this reason the French government along with SNCF has recently shifted its priorities

to maintaining local lines and postponing several high-speed projectsIn Spain three out of four euros allocated in 2018 to rail infrastructure went into high-speed infra-structure Spain now has the longest high-speed network in Europe (around 3000 km) but it is the least used with only 13 billion passenger-kilometres in 2018 As a comparison France transported 49 bil-lion passenger-kilometres on a high-speed network of almost equal length (IRG 2020) In contrast only a minor share of the Spanish rail budget was invest-ed in suburban rail

1PRIORITY

7

Connecting long-distance trains to regional rail services does not always require new high-speed infrastructure Much of the infrastructure is already there especially in western Europe but is not utilised to its full potential A Euro-pean Commission report found that of 202 operational cross-border rail links only 57 were fully exploited in 2017 (European Commission 2018) In many cases more efficient use of existing high-speed or even conven-tional infrastructure and better coordination of timetables would be sufficient A well-coordinated timetable could also integrate regional and long-distance trains and improve connectivity in Europe

Currently the main obstacles to international services are

Q National perspective incumbent operators focus on their national market (especially on lucrative main routes) and often lack an international vision and experience (eg market potential administrative) Trains stop at lsquoat every haystackrsquo which might make sense from a national perspective but leads to additional travel times for international services

Q Administrative hurdles make international services less attractive for operators For example they need to apply for track capacity with various

WarsawmdashVilnius

WarsawmdashPrague

BerlinmdashCopenhagen

BerlinmdashBrussels

BerlinmdashParis

ParismdashMadrid

MadridmdashLisbon

Neighbours but no direct train betweenhellip

8 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

infrastructure managers drivers are required to speak several languages and rolling stock needs to be designed and licensed for different national electricity signalling and safety systems

What is needed is a European spirit in planning and management of rail services and start-up support for new international services In the 1960s and 70s a network of direct trans-continental services connected Europe across bordersmdashthe Trans-Eu-rope Express (TEE) This joint endeavour of French German Swiss Dutch Belgian Luxembourg and Italian railways only offered first-class services and only connected a number of countries in western and central Europe however the idea might serve as a starting point TEE trains only stopped at major cities and were often scheduled to allow travellers to do a roundtrip in a single day At its height in the

late 1970s the TEE served 31 routes The network also gave impetus to the de-velopment of interoperable trains that could run on different voltage systems

A new East-West European line WarsawmdashBerlinmdashBrusselsmdashParisA direct service between Warsaw and Paris could be the first test case for new international lines There are already direct services on the following sections WarsawmdashBerlin (6h) BerlinmdashCologne ColognemdashBrussels BrusselsmdashParis (1h30)The TEE20 study assumes that WarsawmdashParis journey can currently be done in 13h15 with in-frastructure improvements travel time could be reduced to 12h45 (BMVI 2020) There is already rolling stock (TGV) available that is certified in Ger-many Belgium and France While the certification process in Poland is ongoing the trial service could start with BerlinmdashParisThe route would have a significant potential to shift flights to rail as some sections are heavily frequent-ed flight routes There are more than five million passengers every year who fly the total distance WarsawmdashParis or smaller sections of it For in-stance between Cologne and Paris an average of more than 2500 people fly every day and between Berlin and Paris 3000 (in 2019 Eurostat 2020)

Germany is a key player for new European rail servicesDue to its central location in the EU Germany is crucially important for a European rail network Yet running international services through Germany is difficult as

Q Germany is one of the few EU member states that does not place public service obligations onlong-distance rail services

Q the German infrastructure manager DB Netz charges one of the highest mark-ups on track access charges in the EU Many other EU mem-ber states charge only direct costs for infra-structure use and no additional mark-ups

Q responsibility for train services is devolved to re-gional government cross-border coordination with Germany is more difficult than with other EU member states

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9A EuROPEAN NET WORk

A few decades ago countries in Europe were still connected via many night train routes but most of these have been discontinued These night trains were important connections particularly for longer distances Austrian rail operator OumlBB has begun to revive some of the routes

In September 2020 the German government proposed reviving the TEE idea with eight core international routes together with a network of European night trains (BMVI 2020) The idea of a TEE20 is a good start to lsquoEuropeanisingrsquo train services and overcoming some of the major hur-dles The proposed network could then be ex-panded to reach further into SpainPortugal and south and eastern Europe

How can the EU launch new international rail ser-vices in the short term

Q Get started Agree on one or two corridors to start with (eg WarsawmdashBerlinmdashBrusselsmdashParis or AmsterdammdashParismdashBarcelona)

Q Corridor coordination Task the European Railway Agency (ERA) with coordinating rail ser-vices on these corridors to create a one-stop shop for train operators The agency could provide information on which rolling stock is required and the frequency and speed of the services It could facilitate coordination between infrastructure managers to ensure that services get the required track slots for fast and smooth journeys

Q Start-up support Determine those sections of the corridor that the service can run on a commercial basis and those where it needs subsidies (at least to get started) start-up support should be tied to the condi-tion that low-price tickets are available to make the service accessible to price-sensitive passengers

Q Vision Agree on a comprehensive network of European day and night trains with trains crossing external EU borders into the neighbourhood (especially to the uk Western Balkans Turkey ukraine Belarus and Russia)

A new NorthmdashSouth European line AmsterdammdashBarcelonaAnother test case could be a direct service between Amsterdam and Barcelona Currently there are trains making this journey in three segments Am-sterdammdashBrussels (2h30) BrusselsmdashLyon (3h45) and LyonmdashBarcelona (5h)mdasha total of 11 hours 15 minutes A direct train could connect Amsterdam and Barcelona in 10h15 Rolling stock is available for this route the Siemens Velaro train is certified in Netherlands Belgium France and Spain The route would have significant potential to shift travel from air to rail For example there are on average 6500 people flying from Paris to Barce-lona each day In 2019 almost 85 million people took a flight on the AmsterdammdashBarcelona route or smaller sections of it (Eurostat 2020)

WarsawBerlinHanover

Cologne

Frankfurt

KarlsruheFreiburg

Basel

Lyon

Milan

Bologna

Rome

Montpellier

PerpignanBarcelona

Mulhouse

Amsterdam

Short-term implementation of the TEE20

Sour

ce B

MVI

(202

0)

10

Easy booking Make rail data sharing mandatory

Booking international flights is very easy but buying international rail tickets is the opposite Passengers cannot easily find and compare all available con-nections and prices and bear the risk of delays on the way That needs to change travelling by rail needs to become at least as easy as travelling by plane Consumers should be able to book rail tickets for any connection in the Eu via one-stop shops In the best case this should integrate with other sustainable modes for the first and last miles of the passengerrsquos journey such asbuses trams shared bikes etc

It is not possible to book a train ticket FrankfurtmdashBarcelona onlineIf you try to buy a train ticket from Frankfurt to Barcelona this is what you find

Q Deutsche Bahn shows two connections (fastest is 13h04) that reach Barce-lona within the same day but no tickets are sold

Q SNCF shows no connections Q RENFE shows no connections and this information is available only in Spanish Q Trainline offers tickets for three connections which are different from the

Deutsche Bahn connections and require at least 25 hours of travelling Q Omio shows no connection

The only possible ways to book the trip from Frankfurt to Barcelona are to buy tickets for segments of the journey from the different operatorsrsquo websites con-tact an offline travel agent or queue up at one of the few remaining Deutsche Bahn ticket sale desksAs a comparison Google Flights search shows for the same day approximately 60 connections even during the Covid-19 pandemic

2PRIORITY

11

The Eu has trusted the rail sector to find its own solution but that sector has delayed progress for years Technical solu-tions for integrating information from different train providers are available Independent online ticket vendors like Trainline Omio etc try to assemble tickets from different operators but their websites do not yet show all available rail connections and ticket offers This is because rail operators are reluctant to share all the necessary data with other operators or with independent ticket vendors

The EU needs to require rail operators to share all nec-essary data for easy booking of international rail trips European law currently obliges transport operators to share only some basic data such as static travel and traffic data (19262017 Delegated Regulation of the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) Directive) The regulation does not cover fare data and also leaves it open to member states to require dynamic travel and traffic data (eg information on platform numbers and changes accurate seat plans real-time delays and cancellations predicted arrival time) These data are critical for a seamless journey and for passengers to be able to find alternative connections in case of disruptions (European Commission 2019)

Finland shows the way for multimodal ticketingFinland is the European frontrunner when it comes to multimodal ticketing The 2018 Transport Act obliges all mo-bility service providers to grant access to essential data sales interfaces and reservation interfaces via an Applica-tion Programming Interface (API) The law thus covers not only rail but also public road services Mobility service providers are obliged to cooperate and to enter into agreements based on criteria set out in the Transport Act The Finnish Transport Agency is responsible for monitoring the supply and demand of mobility services and produces statistics from the data ob-tained (European Commission 2019)

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12 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

Some member states move beyond that regulation while others implement only the absolute minimum resulting in legal fragmentation across the EU In Germany for instance Deutsche Bahn (DB) data on timetables and planned disruptions is open to ticket vendors but not data on real-time platforms real-time delays and cancellations or next-day information on delays and cancellation (which is required for claiming compensation)

The EU needs to establish a comprehensive multimodal legal framework for booking ticketing and payment services In its 2021 Work Programme the European Commission announced it would revise the ITS Directive and propose a multimodal ticketing initiative This initiative needs to fulfil the fol-lowing criteria

Q The framework will make access to static and dynamic data manda-tory (including routes stops timetables prices and the availability and accessibility of services)

Q Rail operators will be required to share data via an open Application Programming Interface (API) which must be in machine readable for-mat Many operators have so far failed to build interfaces into their own booking systems

Q The framework should allow ticket vendors to assemble their own discount and promotion packages to compete in an open ticketing market

The EU needs to establish rules to guaran-tee that international rail passengers arrive at their final destination and can hop on the next train in case of missed train connections Rail pas-sengers often need to buy individual tickets from different rail operators for a multi-leg journeymdashand under current rules passengers bear the risk if a connection is missed Rail operators are cur-rently not obliged to sell so-called lsquothrough ticketsrsquo that is one ticket contract for multi-leg journey with a guarantee to arrive at the final destination Also independent ticket vendors that assemble tickets from various operators do not offer such an lsquoarrival guaranteersquo As there are only a few direct interna-tional train connections between major European cities this is a concern for passengers

The BerlinmdashBrussels roulettemdash no lsquohop on the next trainrsquoWhen travelling by train from Berlin to Brussels passengers need to change trains in Cologne Fre-quently the ICE train (operated by DB) from Berlin to Cologne is delayed and travellers miss their con-nection From Cologne to Brussels there is only one ICE train every two hours but a Thalys train several times a day in the lsquointerim slotsrsquo Yet the DB traveller is not allowed to take the Thalys trains to Brussels earlier than the next ICE train because there is no lsquohop on the next trainrsquo agreement between Thalys and DB meaning travellers oftenneed 08h49 in-stead of 06h49 for the trip

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13EASY BOOkING

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14

Smart spending Use EU money to improve rail infrastructure capacity and connectivity

EU funding (cohesion funding Connecting Europe Facility Recovery and Resil-ience Facility) makes up an important share of overall transport infrastructure funding especially in the new member states Yet in the past Eu transport funding has not always been used wisely Too much funding went into road and airports and too little into rail This is especially the case for EU cohesion fund-ing around 50 of transport cohesion funding goes into road and only 25 into rail projects Funding decisions are based on plans prepared by the

respective member state and negotiated between member states and the European Commission

European Investment Bank (EIB) transport lending is still supporting unsustainable infrastructure such as airports and new motorway projects Transport is the single largest sector of EIB activity accounting for about 1 in every 4 euros invested by the bank The bank is however in the process of revising both its climate (2020) and transport policies (2021)

Too much money also goes into mega-projects with exploding costs and long delays The Eu-ropean Court of Auditors (2018) cautioned that projects were often chosen based on political de-cisions and not on thorough cost-benefit analyses

3

Only one out of seven border crossings between Germany and Poland is electrifiedThere were once 24 rail links between Germany and Poland of which only seven remain in operation Yet only the border crossing at Frankfurt (Oder) is electrified The trains from Berlin to Warsaw or to Gdansk operate on this line The remaining six border crossings are not yet electrified meaning that trains need to run on diesel The CottbusmdashLegnica link is particularly relevant to connect Berlin to densely populated Southern Poland (Wroclaw Silesia Krakow) To electrify this 138 km link would cost approximately euro100 million but could reduce travel time between Berlin and Wroclaw from currently 45 hours to only 3 hours because Eurocity trains could take a more direct route (currently going through Frankfurt (Oder)) For comparison before the 2nd World War travel time was only 25 hours

PRIORITY

15

The evaluated high-speed projects took 16 years on average cost on average euro25 million per track km but often do not deliver on expectations average speeds rarely reach 200 kmh and only few lines transported more than nine million passengers per year (the benchmark for a successful high-speed line) In contrast small-scale interventions with greater European potential are of-ten not implemented This can be electrification constructing a second track or bypasses to increase capacity and speed or closing smaller missing links on the border

The European Court of Auditors also noted a lack of coordination of cross-border infrastructure projects Member states take a national perspec-tive and do not prioritise closing cross-border gaps This means that infrastructure might have been completed on one side of the border but delayed by years on the other side

The EU should ensure that EU funding

Q Supports modal shift towards rail In the negotiations of the Operational Programmes for Cohesion funding the European Commis-sion should ensure that more budget goes to rail than to road and no new roads are financedin the old member states as they al-ready have a sufficiently dense road network The European Commission should also ask member states to present modal shift tar-gets if they want to access funds for trans-port under the Recovery and Resilience Facility The EIB should in the upcoming review of its Transport Strategy decide to stop funding any airport infrastructure or road network expansion and instead increase funding for electric cross-border rail projects and rolling stock

Q Prioritises rail projects essential for intra-European rail services Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funding should only go into projects that are key to cross-border connectivity (eg for key corridors) and should focus more on low-hanging fruits than on new mega-projects Such inter-ventions should be based on sound cost-benefit analysis When evaluating

Spain has only one international long-distance rail lineSpain has invested massively into high-speed lines over the last decades with euro14 billion (25 of total investment) coming from Eu funds (Inter-national Railway Journal 2020) Yet there is only one international high-speed rail line connecting Barcelona with Montpellier in France The tracks are underused with only two services per day For regional services there are additional border crossings in Portbou-Perpignan (Mediterranean coast) IrunHendaye (Atlantic coast) and Puigcerda (Pyrenees) but none of them is serviced frequently Another difficulty on these regional lines is that trains need to change between standard and Ibe-rian track gauge at the borderThe connection between Spain and Portugal is even worse a rail trip from Madrid to Lisbon (625 km) takes 10h50 and requires three changes as only regional lines operate across borders There are border crossings in Badajoz-Elvas Fregenada-Bar-ca de Alva and Vigo-Porto but they are under-used The only long-distance line to Portugal is a night train from HendayeIrun to Lisbon (currently sus-pended due to Covid-19) The TEN-T network plan foresees a high-speed connection between Madrid and Lisbon as part of the core network but the project is currently not being pursued by either the Portuguese or the Spanish government

16 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

member statesrsquo operational programmes for cohesion fundingrecovery funding the European Commission should suggest to member states that they include rail projects that are key tothe functioning of a European rail network

Q Promotes infrastructure interventions which are accompanied by transformative measures When accessing EU rail infrastructure funding member states should be required to present accompanying policy measures which ensure that the infrastructure is used efficiently

Other policy interventions for supporting European rail

Apart from the above mentioned priorities the EU and member states should address the following obstacles

Q International rail has no strong voice in the current system because member states and incumbent railway operators tend to focus on their own national markets There is also a lack of coordination of infrastructure managers across borders The EU should strengthen the European Rail Agency (ERA) as a traffic control and coordination authority for international rail transport The ERA should be entrusted with forecasting demand assessing the level of required services (destination frequency speed) and allocating capacities The ERA could identify routes that may be of interest to travellers but which are not yet fully exploited and could make this information available to train operators It could also determine which sections of the desired network services would be

Examples of bordercrossings between Spain France Belgium Germany and Poland that need urgent attention

Member States involved Border crossing Important for Required action

Germany mdash Poland Cottbus mdash Forst mdash  Legnica

connecting Berlin with southern Poland electrification of 138 km

France mdash Germany Colmar mdash Freiburg connecting regions build 1 km bridge

Spain mdash France Astigarraga mdash IrunthinspHendaye mdash Bayonne

connecting Bordeaux to northern Spain

upgrade cross-border section

Spain mdash France (Pau) Bedous mdash Canfranc (Zaragoza)

Reconnect central corridor in the Pyrenees

Refurbishment of 30 km railtrack on French side

17SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

commercially viable and where public service obligations (PSOs) would be needed in order to guarantee a service

Q Night train operators and new rail operators have an especially hard time finding trains that can operate in more than one country The second-hand market for interoperable rolling stock and night trains is limited ordering an entire new fleet is prohibitively expensive and no func-tioning leasing market is in place for this specific segment The Eu and member states should help to find new creative finance mechanisms for overcoming the lack of rolling stock and consider establishing a publicly managed rolling stock pool

Q Airlines pay no tax on kerosene receive 85 of allowances of the European Emissions Trading Scheme free of charge and pay no VAT on international tickets This creates an uneven playing field between aviation and rail The European Commission has announced it will review both the EU Energy Taxation Directive and the EU ETS Directive in 2021 It is crucial to use this opportunity to introduce a kerosene tax in-troduce full auctioning for aviation allowances in the EU ETS and create a stronger price for emission allowances

Q Track access charges are prohibitively high in some EU member states EU Regulation suggests that charges should cover only marginal costs but some member states ask for much higher mark ups for example on highly frequented routes or during rush hours This creates an unfair advantage for road transport which pays only infrastructure charges on approximately 3 of the Eu road network For freight rail some member states have reduced charges but not so for passenger rail EU member states should agree to reduce track access charges to direct cost levels This would increase the use of tracks and could bring higher in-come for infrastructure managers in return During the transition period alternative funding to cover losses of infrastructure managers could come from ETS auctioning revenues

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18 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

Why is this important

Rail can help the EU to achieve its climate targets

Rail is the cleanest mode of transport A flight from Paris to Berlin causes at least six times the CO2 emissions of a train journey Counting the also non-CO2 impacts of aviation the flight is responsible for 18 times the climate impact of a rail trip With further electrification and decarbonisation of power generation the carbon emissions of rail could be reduced to close to zero

Intra-European flights on distances less than 1000 km are estimated to cause 28 MtCO2 every year without counting the non-CO2 impacts Seventeen of the 20 most frequented air routes in Europe are for distances less than 700 km In theory almost all of these journeys could be shifted to rail

The better European cities are connected by rail the easier it is to move trans-port away from high-polluting transport modes such as aviation and cars The more attractive and easy-to-use rail services are the more likely it is that people will want to switch

Rail can be a driver for European recovery post-Covid-19

The rail sector employs more than 23 million people (directly and indirectly) and creates a gross value added of euro143 billion of which euro66 billion is created directly by the sector This is larger than the gross value added of air transport The Eu rail supply industry accounts for around 20 of the global market

Rail infrastructure investments usually need more time but add to mid-term stability and growth expectations in the construction sector Some rail in-frastructure modernisation projects could be realised rapidlymdashfor example track switches bypasses European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) The investments needed for the realisation of the Trans-European Transport (TEN-T) core network for example is estimated to create euro45 trillion cumulated GDP and 13 million job-years EU-wide

19SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

Rail connects people cities and countries

In contrast to aviation rail not only services highly frequented core routes but also has a network that reaches into remote regions This network was much more dense 50 years ago both within countries and in border regions While many connections are not in use anymore because of massive divestment from rail many could easily be reinstalled A network of fast long-distance connections combined with dense regional services could make Europeans feel connected to and part of the EU

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20

Annex Specific recommendations for Poland Germany France and Spain

What can Poland do to boost European rail services

1 Create fair conditions for infrastructure access

The current system of infrastructure access charges is extremely asymmetric and strongly favours road over rail transport Rail currently pays infrastructure access charges on 100 of the railway network (including layovers or the use of railway stations) while road (bus) operators pay charges only on 1 of Pol-ish roads and individual drivers pay only for selected sections of motorways representing around 02 of the entire network Infrastructure charges of road and rail should be aligned in all market segmentsmdashincluding international long-distance transport

The second problem is the high level of track access charges for rail operators As a first step track access charges in Poland should be reduced to the level of costs directly induced by the train journey This would reduce charges from the current 60 of total infrastructure maintenance costs to 30 These charges should go entirely to the Railway Fund and thus contribute to the development and construction of new railway lines (as is the case with roads) Maintenance costs should be covered through the general state budget ultimately the sys-tem of charges for transport infrastructure should be dependent on the level of external costs (pollution noise traffic safety etc)

4

21

2 Invest in interoperable rolling stock for international connections including night trains

The lack of interoperable rolling stock is a key obstacle for the launch of new international long-distance connections Due to the very limited number of in-ternational connections and small passenger flows it is not a priority for carrier investment As a result international rail operatorsmdashespecially night trainsmdashhave access only to old wagons of poor quality In addition international trains waste time at borders due to the lack of multi-system locomotives which could run on different voltage and safety systems In Poland an estimated 40 locomo-tives and approximately 350 wagons are needed to operate connections with other Eu countries (Germany Czech Republic Slovakia and Lithuania) To im-prove the quality and frequency of international connections Poland should launch an investment programme for interoperable rolling stock This could also help the country negotiate with the European union on the co-financing of rolling stock or even an Eu-financed rolling stock pool Currently the long-dis-tance segment is the only area of passenger railway in Poland not covered by any EU support programme for rolling stock

3 Elimination of barriers to entry for new railway carriers

One of the basic problems of the international transport offer is its malad-justment to modern market needs Trains run infrequently tickets are much more expensive than domestic services and there are no discounts available on international trains The reason is that the organisation of connections is left to the incumbent railway carriers from individual countries and inflexi-ble procedures for their cooperation (including archaic regulations on tariffs and ticket sales) The example of low-cost airlines shows that an effective instrument for changing this situation is opening the market to competition In the case of commercial services full deregulation of the market should be achieved Where financial support (PSO) is required to maintain traffic compet-itive tenders for carrier selection should be obligatory in accordance with the provisions of the Fourth Railway Package In the case of Poland it is essential to review and clarify the rules for market access The current regulation leaves room for misinterpretation and is commonly used to block the entry of new entrants to the market which may exert positive pressure on the quality scope and accessibility of services for passengers

22 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Germany do to boost European rail services

1 Reduce track access charges for passenger trains

According to Eu law track access charges should generally only reflect direct costs (wear and tear costs) but Germany for instance makes use of an ex-emption and charges full costs for passenger trains (ie including infrastructure maintenance costs) The German track access charges are as a consequence five times as high as the mere direct costs would be (CERRE 2018) This results in very high access charges for train operators accounting for around a third of total operation costs The average costs per kilometre for long-distance trains rose by 18 between 2013 and 2018 For freight rail Germany has already decided to halve its track access charges The same approach to passenger rail could be a first step in incentivising more international services and to make rail more competitive with other transport modes The lost income for infra-structure managers would need to come from Germanyrsquos general budget

2 Establish a competent national authority for long-distance rail

Germany is the only Eu member state without a national contracting authority for rail transport When Germany reformed its rail system in the 1990s it es-tablished in each of the federal states (Bundeslaumlnder) at least one contract-ing authority responsible for organising and ordering regional rail passenger services and for determining public service obligations There are now 27 re-gional contracting authorities but no such authority at federal level Article 87e(4) of the German constitution obliges the federal government to guarantee non-regional services and provides the legal basis for establishing a national contracting authority by law Yet after more than two decades Germany has still not introduced such a law meaning that all long-distancetrains need to run solely on a commercial basis

This has led to gaps in the national network of long-distance trains and raises the question of how Germany can implement its so-called lsquoDeutschlandtaktrsquo

23ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

an integrated timetable for 2030 which includes routes not commercially via-ble It also makes it more difficult to run international trains through Germany Operating international trains is usually more costly because of higher coor-dination and administration costs and the need to buy or lease interoperable rolling stock In contrast to many other Eu member states Germany provides no support for long-distance trains in the form of public service obligations (PSOs) and also seems to object toother governments covering the German part of the route with PSOs as a recent feasibility study on a StockholmmdashBrus-sels night train revealed

3 Electrify border crossings to Poland and Czech Republic

Most international long-distance trains today run on electricity which is not only cleaner but also faster Only 61 of Germanyrsquos railway network is elec-trified and only 27 of its 57 border crossings into neighbouring countries are electrified Most non-electrified border crossings are on the eastern borders 13 into the Czech Republic and eight into Poland The lack of electrification usually means that locomotives need to be changed at the border adding to travel times and that many faster trains cannot run on those sections To better connect with the east Germany should urgently electrify the following sections

Q CottbusmdashForstmdashLegnica 138 km electrification would speed up services from Berlin to Wroclaw and krakow

Q DresdenmdashGoumlrlitzmdashZgorzelec 95 km electrification would improve train connections between Dresden and Wrocław

Q RegensburgmdashFurth im Wald 131 km electrification would speed up ser-vices from Munich to Prague to less than four hours

Q NuumlrnbergmdashSchirndingmdashCheb 140 km electrification would reduce travel time between Nuremberg and Prague to less than four hours

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24 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can France do to boost European rail services

1 Initiate a national strategy for a modal shift from air to rail

Massive modal shift is no longer an option but a necessity if France is to reach its targets of CO2 emissions Yet there is no long-term plan to reduce the number of flights taken for European travel Such a strategy is much needed as it would allow for long-term planning better coordination with the ERA and better coordination between long-distance and local trains

With an extensive network of railways lines already in place international con-nections do not require any major infrastructure works and couldbe created very quickly What is lacking is an integrated strategy to promote train over air for domestic and European travel France should set clear objectives in modal shift by 2030 and 2050 in accordance with national low carbon strategy (SNBC)

As long- and medium-distance train connections (both day and night ) can be an important asset to reach French climate targets France should create further incentives to boost this modal shift introducing VAT on European flights and reducing VAT on train travel Airport expansion projects in France should also be halted as they undermine efforts towards low emission mobility

2 Ease emergence of new players for long-distance connections

As the European rail market opens private and lsquohistoricrsquo incumbents will have the opportunity to operate new European connections This opening of the Eu-ropean train market will be an opportunity for new train companies to operate these trans-European connections To encourage lsquonewcomersrsquo France should guarantee that the services of these private companies will be able to set up their businesses and operate without obstacles set track access charges to its direct costs level and guarantee that newcomers will have access to public infrastructure and tracks

25ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

The opening of the market could also be an opportunity for incumbents such as SNCF As has been done with Thalys or Eurostar SNCF should initiate a part-nership with other national andor private companies to operate one or several of the European corridors that will be designed

It is quite possible to lsquostart smallrsquo operating only on the sections where infra-structure and rolling stock are compatible (ParismdashBerlin for example) and gradually extend the lines to reach full potential such as ParismdashWarsaw

3 Invest in night train rolling stock

Night trains can be a positive alternative to intra-Eu-ropean flights They can serve both domestic and international destinations However night trains in France have been on a downslide for several years The French government has recently announced that two new national train lines will be reopened This trend should be continued as the number of night trains gradually increases and night train lines extended to international destinations

For the night train renaissance France should in-vest euro150 million each year in rolling stock as the current stock is aging and far too limited This in-vestment will incentivise industries to produce new high-quality wagons designed for the night trains

At night some of the French track capacity is re-served for maintenance work and cannot be usedThis challenge can be overcome by starting with a small number of routes providing alternative routes when needed andor subsidising SNCF Reacute-seau so that maintenance work during the night can be lsquoun-optimisedrsquo that is take place over a longer period but without stopping traffic at night copy

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26 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Spain do to boost European rail services

1 Refurbish upgrade and finalise cross-border connections between Spain Portugal and France

Cross-border connections between Spain and its neighbouring countries need an urgent upgrade to allow smooth fast and convenient passenger trips be-tween major southern European cities In the Basque country the rail lines between Hendaye and Irun should be quickly refurbished to avoid unneces-sary stop-overs and guarantee the integration of French high-speed network (ParismdashBordeauxmdashHendaye) with the Spanish high-speed line in construction between DonostiaBilbao and Vittoria (known as Basque Y) and then towards Madrid and other Spanish cities

In Central Pyrenees the historical line between Pau (Nouvelle Aquitaine) and Zaragoza (Aragon) via the monumental Canfranc International station should be relaunched by building the missing 30 km between Bedous (France) and Canfranc (Spain) This final work will increase freight and passenger connectiv-ity improve cross-border security and boost the economy of isolated regions highly dependent on tourism agriculture and industry

On the Atlantic side the cities of Lisbon and Madrid as well as Santiago de Com-postela (Galicia) and Porto need to be integrated into a high-performance network based on the upgrade of outdated rail tracks This connection would ensure the better cohesion and connection of geographically remote and pe-ripheral cities and regions with the rest of the European capitals

2 Relaunch night train services and long-distance conventional lines

Most of the night time and conventional trains between major southern Euro-pean cities (such as MadridmdashParis BarcelonamdashParis MadridmdashBarcelona Ma-dridmdashLisbon) have been abandoned in the last decade due to aggressive and unfair competition from low-cost airlines and long-distance buses However the climate crisis is pushing citizens towards low-carbon transport such as rail

27ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

Spanish citizens deserve affordable night trains and renovated long-distance trains that allow them to save time carbon and money avoiding expensive night hotels at origin and destination Relaunching cross-regional train lines is also a way to support safe inclusive and sustainable tourism in Mediterranean countries dramatically affected by the Covid crisis and related lockdowns

3 Increase the use of the network by opening the market and levelling the playing field

Spain has the longest high-speed network in Europe (2675 km) but it is the least used with only 13 billion passenger-kilometres in 2018 As a comparison France transported 49 billion passenger-km on a high-speed network of almost equal length (2548 km) When looking at passenger and freight rail together use intensity of the Spanish rail network (34 trains per day per route km) is also very low compared to the rest of Europe (146 in the Netherlands 96 in the UK 78 in Germany 43 in France)

As a large part of the high-speed infrastructure has been financed by the Eu the poor performance of rail in Spain is clearly an inefficient use of public money that should be solved by appropriate regulation and incentives The new law for sustainable mobility in the making is a unique opportunity to reverse those negative trends and fix historical pitfalls The opening of the network to new rail operators planned in 2021 should also contribute to increasing the number of passengers without building any new infrastructure Finally the rules for transport operators should be fair between air road and trains by integrating the environmental and social externalities and incentivising cleaner alternatives

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28

References

BMVI (2020) Trans-Europe Express 20 httpswwwbmvideSharedDocsENDocumentsKinnovative-rail-transport-overnight-21-09-2020pdf__blob=publicationFile (accessed 26 November 2020)

CERRE (2018) Track Access ChargesmdashCase Study Germany httpscerreorgsitescerrefiles180509_CERRE_TrackAccessCharges_CaseStudy_Germa-ny_Finalpdf (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2018) Comprehensive analysis of the existing cross-bor-der rail transport connections and missing links on the internal EU borders httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-detail-publicatione68ec381-62f7-11e8-ab9c-01aa75ed71a1language-en (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2019) Remaining Challenges for EU-wide integrated ticketing and payment services httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-de-tail-publicationaf05b3eb-df43-11e9-9c4e-01aa75ed71a1 (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Court of Auditors (2018) A European high-speed rail network not a reality but an ineffective patchwork ECA Special Report httpswwwecaeuropaeuenPagesDocItemaspxdid=46398 (accessed 26 Novem-ber 2020)

Eurostat (2020) Air passenger transport between the main airports (data sets avia_par_fr avia_par_pl avia_par_de avia_par_es avia_par_b) httpseceuropaeueurostatwebmainhome (accessed 26 November 2020)

Independent Regulatorrsquos Group (IRG) (2020) 8th IRG-Rail Market Monitoring Report httpsirg-raileuirgdocumentsmarket-monitoring (accessed 26 November 2020)

International Railway Journal (2020) Spain urged to rebalance high-speed and suburban rail development 7 August 2020 httpswwwrailjournalcompassengerhigh-speedspain-urged-to-rebalance-high-speed-and-subur-ban-rail-investment (accessed 26 November 2020)

Page 3: Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe...Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe How the 2021 European Year of Rail can˜support the˜European Green Deal and a

Table of Contents

The European Year of Rail 2021 is a key driver for the European Green Deal 4

1 A European network launch direct international services on European arteries 6

2 Easy booking Make rail data sharing mandatory 10

3 Smart spending Use EU money to improve rail infrastructure capacity and connectivity 14

Other policy interventions for supporting European rail 16

Why is this important 18

4 Annex Specific recommendations for Poland Germany France and Spain 20

What can Poland do to boost European rail services 20

What can Germany do to boost European rail services 22

What can France do to boost European rail services 24

What can Spain do to boost European rail services 26

References 28

4

The European Year of Rail 2021 is a key driver for the European Green Deal

The European union has set itself the target to become climate neutral by 2050 Making mobility more sustainable is necessary for reaching this target Rail could play a key role in the future transport system because it is clean safe andreliable and it could become a symbol for the European Green Deal Eu-rope needs to become more climate friendly and Europe needs to grow closer together A strengthened European rail system could (1) better connect people and businesses in Europe (2) reduce transport emissions by cre-ating alternative options to road transport and aviation and (3) give a green boost to the European economy post-Covid-19

While many actors are praising railways the European rail systemis currently not in the best shape to take a central role in transport systems In almost all EU member states the importance of rail has declined over the last decades due to a heavy focus on road and aviation Rail accounts for only 8 of pas-senger transport and international rail services in particular are not suffi ciently developed Of the 365 cross-border rail links that once existed 149 were non-operational in 2018 and today not even all European capital cities are linked by direct rail services The rail system in the EU is currently not more than a patchwork of national systems with no comprehensive European strategy

In the European Year of Rail 2021 the Eu and national governments need to seize the opportunity to boost European rail services This is an excellent moment for initiating a rail renaissance for the following reasons (1) Covid-19 has reshuffl ed transport systems and travelling habits (2) with the European

5

Green Deal the Eu economy is onthe brink of a new era and (3) there is strong political support for rail from actors across the board

The options for improving international rail are right in front of us on a silver platter EU institutions and players tend to focus on infrastructure development but this is expensive and time consuming Also rail infrastructure projects are often not matched with measures to simultaneously improve service quality to make effi cient use of the new infrastructure There are low-hanging fruits available to the EU which could boost international rail services immediately without the need for large scale investments

PRIORITIES

PRIORITY

1Launch new direct

international services day and night

on existing infrastructure

PRIORITY

2Make booking

of international services attractive

and convenient

PRIORITY

3Invest in cross-border

infrastructure connections

and key corridors

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6

A European network launch direct international services on European arteries

International rail services between major European cities offer a large untapped potential Most rail services stop at the border or end just on the other side of the border Travellers often need to change trains several times to get from one capital to the othermdashwhich means additional stress and waiting time for the traveller The few direct services often stop too many times along the way and wait too often at major traffic nodes for track capacity Direct trains between all European major cities of neighbouring countries should be an abso-lute minimum but also other metropolitan areas should be connected with direct and frequent services Furthermore long-distance trains should connect well with regional rail services to establish a dense and attractive network

France and Spain have developed high-speed services but abandoned most regional lines

Both France and Spain have invested heavily in high-speed lines France has built 2800 kilometres (km) of high-speed lines since the 1980s which makes it one of the densest high-speed networks in Europe Unfortu-nately the cost of building and maintaining these lines has taken its toll on regional and local lines Between 1998 and 2018 131 of the total length of the French network was closed Local and re-gional infrastructure is aging and in urgent need of renewal For this reason the French government along with SNCF has recently shifted its priorities

to maintaining local lines and postponing several high-speed projectsIn Spain three out of four euros allocated in 2018 to rail infrastructure went into high-speed infra-structure Spain now has the longest high-speed network in Europe (around 3000 km) but it is the least used with only 13 billion passenger-kilometres in 2018 As a comparison France transported 49 bil-lion passenger-kilometres on a high-speed network of almost equal length (IRG 2020) In contrast only a minor share of the Spanish rail budget was invest-ed in suburban rail

1PRIORITY

7

Connecting long-distance trains to regional rail services does not always require new high-speed infrastructure Much of the infrastructure is already there especially in western Europe but is not utilised to its full potential A Euro-pean Commission report found that of 202 operational cross-border rail links only 57 were fully exploited in 2017 (European Commission 2018) In many cases more efficient use of existing high-speed or even conven-tional infrastructure and better coordination of timetables would be sufficient A well-coordinated timetable could also integrate regional and long-distance trains and improve connectivity in Europe

Currently the main obstacles to international services are

Q National perspective incumbent operators focus on their national market (especially on lucrative main routes) and often lack an international vision and experience (eg market potential administrative) Trains stop at lsquoat every haystackrsquo which might make sense from a national perspective but leads to additional travel times for international services

Q Administrative hurdles make international services less attractive for operators For example they need to apply for track capacity with various

WarsawmdashVilnius

WarsawmdashPrague

BerlinmdashCopenhagen

BerlinmdashBrussels

BerlinmdashParis

ParismdashMadrid

MadridmdashLisbon

Neighbours but no direct train betweenhellip

8 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

infrastructure managers drivers are required to speak several languages and rolling stock needs to be designed and licensed for different national electricity signalling and safety systems

What is needed is a European spirit in planning and management of rail services and start-up support for new international services In the 1960s and 70s a network of direct trans-continental services connected Europe across bordersmdashthe Trans-Eu-rope Express (TEE) This joint endeavour of French German Swiss Dutch Belgian Luxembourg and Italian railways only offered first-class services and only connected a number of countries in western and central Europe however the idea might serve as a starting point TEE trains only stopped at major cities and were often scheduled to allow travellers to do a roundtrip in a single day At its height in the

late 1970s the TEE served 31 routes The network also gave impetus to the de-velopment of interoperable trains that could run on different voltage systems

A new East-West European line WarsawmdashBerlinmdashBrusselsmdashParisA direct service between Warsaw and Paris could be the first test case for new international lines There are already direct services on the following sections WarsawmdashBerlin (6h) BerlinmdashCologne ColognemdashBrussels BrusselsmdashParis (1h30)The TEE20 study assumes that WarsawmdashParis journey can currently be done in 13h15 with in-frastructure improvements travel time could be reduced to 12h45 (BMVI 2020) There is already rolling stock (TGV) available that is certified in Ger-many Belgium and France While the certification process in Poland is ongoing the trial service could start with BerlinmdashParisThe route would have a significant potential to shift flights to rail as some sections are heavily frequent-ed flight routes There are more than five million passengers every year who fly the total distance WarsawmdashParis or smaller sections of it For in-stance between Cologne and Paris an average of more than 2500 people fly every day and between Berlin and Paris 3000 (in 2019 Eurostat 2020)

Germany is a key player for new European rail servicesDue to its central location in the EU Germany is crucially important for a European rail network Yet running international services through Germany is difficult as

Q Germany is one of the few EU member states that does not place public service obligations onlong-distance rail services

Q the German infrastructure manager DB Netz charges one of the highest mark-ups on track access charges in the EU Many other EU mem-ber states charge only direct costs for infra-structure use and no additional mark-ups

Q responsibility for train services is devolved to re-gional government cross-border coordination with Germany is more difficult than with other EU member states

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9A EuROPEAN NET WORk

A few decades ago countries in Europe were still connected via many night train routes but most of these have been discontinued These night trains were important connections particularly for longer distances Austrian rail operator OumlBB has begun to revive some of the routes

In September 2020 the German government proposed reviving the TEE idea with eight core international routes together with a network of European night trains (BMVI 2020) The idea of a TEE20 is a good start to lsquoEuropeanisingrsquo train services and overcoming some of the major hur-dles The proposed network could then be ex-panded to reach further into SpainPortugal and south and eastern Europe

How can the EU launch new international rail ser-vices in the short term

Q Get started Agree on one or two corridors to start with (eg WarsawmdashBerlinmdashBrusselsmdashParis or AmsterdammdashParismdashBarcelona)

Q Corridor coordination Task the European Railway Agency (ERA) with coordinating rail ser-vices on these corridors to create a one-stop shop for train operators The agency could provide information on which rolling stock is required and the frequency and speed of the services It could facilitate coordination between infrastructure managers to ensure that services get the required track slots for fast and smooth journeys

Q Start-up support Determine those sections of the corridor that the service can run on a commercial basis and those where it needs subsidies (at least to get started) start-up support should be tied to the condi-tion that low-price tickets are available to make the service accessible to price-sensitive passengers

Q Vision Agree on a comprehensive network of European day and night trains with trains crossing external EU borders into the neighbourhood (especially to the uk Western Balkans Turkey ukraine Belarus and Russia)

A new NorthmdashSouth European line AmsterdammdashBarcelonaAnother test case could be a direct service between Amsterdam and Barcelona Currently there are trains making this journey in three segments Am-sterdammdashBrussels (2h30) BrusselsmdashLyon (3h45) and LyonmdashBarcelona (5h)mdasha total of 11 hours 15 minutes A direct train could connect Amsterdam and Barcelona in 10h15 Rolling stock is available for this route the Siemens Velaro train is certified in Netherlands Belgium France and Spain The route would have significant potential to shift travel from air to rail For example there are on average 6500 people flying from Paris to Barce-lona each day In 2019 almost 85 million people took a flight on the AmsterdammdashBarcelona route or smaller sections of it (Eurostat 2020)

WarsawBerlinHanover

Cologne

Frankfurt

KarlsruheFreiburg

Basel

Lyon

Milan

Bologna

Rome

Montpellier

PerpignanBarcelona

Mulhouse

Amsterdam

Short-term implementation of the TEE20

Sour

ce B

MVI

(202

0)

10

Easy booking Make rail data sharing mandatory

Booking international flights is very easy but buying international rail tickets is the opposite Passengers cannot easily find and compare all available con-nections and prices and bear the risk of delays on the way That needs to change travelling by rail needs to become at least as easy as travelling by plane Consumers should be able to book rail tickets for any connection in the Eu via one-stop shops In the best case this should integrate with other sustainable modes for the first and last miles of the passengerrsquos journey such asbuses trams shared bikes etc

It is not possible to book a train ticket FrankfurtmdashBarcelona onlineIf you try to buy a train ticket from Frankfurt to Barcelona this is what you find

Q Deutsche Bahn shows two connections (fastest is 13h04) that reach Barce-lona within the same day but no tickets are sold

Q SNCF shows no connections Q RENFE shows no connections and this information is available only in Spanish Q Trainline offers tickets for three connections which are different from the

Deutsche Bahn connections and require at least 25 hours of travelling Q Omio shows no connection

The only possible ways to book the trip from Frankfurt to Barcelona are to buy tickets for segments of the journey from the different operatorsrsquo websites con-tact an offline travel agent or queue up at one of the few remaining Deutsche Bahn ticket sale desksAs a comparison Google Flights search shows for the same day approximately 60 connections even during the Covid-19 pandemic

2PRIORITY

11

The Eu has trusted the rail sector to find its own solution but that sector has delayed progress for years Technical solu-tions for integrating information from different train providers are available Independent online ticket vendors like Trainline Omio etc try to assemble tickets from different operators but their websites do not yet show all available rail connections and ticket offers This is because rail operators are reluctant to share all the necessary data with other operators or with independent ticket vendors

The EU needs to require rail operators to share all nec-essary data for easy booking of international rail trips European law currently obliges transport operators to share only some basic data such as static travel and traffic data (19262017 Delegated Regulation of the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) Directive) The regulation does not cover fare data and also leaves it open to member states to require dynamic travel and traffic data (eg information on platform numbers and changes accurate seat plans real-time delays and cancellations predicted arrival time) These data are critical for a seamless journey and for passengers to be able to find alternative connections in case of disruptions (European Commission 2019)

Finland shows the way for multimodal ticketingFinland is the European frontrunner when it comes to multimodal ticketing The 2018 Transport Act obliges all mo-bility service providers to grant access to essential data sales interfaces and reservation interfaces via an Applica-tion Programming Interface (API) The law thus covers not only rail but also public road services Mobility service providers are obliged to cooperate and to enter into agreements based on criteria set out in the Transport Act The Finnish Transport Agency is responsible for monitoring the supply and demand of mobility services and produces statistics from the data ob-tained (European Commission 2019)

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12 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

Some member states move beyond that regulation while others implement only the absolute minimum resulting in legal fragmentation across the EU In Germany for instance Deutsche Bahn (DB) data on timetables and planned disruptions is open to ticket vendors but not data on real-time platforms real-time delays and cancellations or next-day information on delays and cancellation (which is required for claiming compensation)

The EU needs to establish a comprehensive multimodal legal framework for booking ticketing and payment services In its 2021 Work Programme the European Commission announced it would revise the ITS Directive and propose a multimodal ticketing initiative This initiative needs to fulfil the fol-lowing criteria

Q The framework will make access to static and dynamic data manda-tory (including routes stops timetables prices and the availability and accessibility of services)

Q Rail operators will be required to share data via an open Application Programming Interface (API) which must be in machine readable for-mat Many operators have so far failed to build interfaces into their own booking systems

Q The framework should allow ticket vendors to assemble their own discount and promotion packages to compete in an open ticketing market

The EU needs to establish rules to guaran-tee that international rail passengers arrive at their final destination and can hop on the next train in case of missed train connections Rail pas-sengers often need to buy individual tickets from different rail operators for a multi-leg journeymdashand under current rules passengers bear the risk if a connection is missed Rail operators are cur-rently not obliged to sell so-called lsquothrough ticketsrsquo that is one ticket contract for multi-leg journey with a guarantee to arrive at the final destination Also independent ticket vendors that assemble tickets from various operators do not offer such an lsquoarrival guaranteersquo As there are only a few direct interna-tional train connections between major European cities this is a concern for passengers

The BerlinmdashBrussels roulettemdash no lsquohop on the next trainrsquoWhen travelling by train from Berlin to Brussels passengers need to change trains in Cologne Fre-quently the ICE train (operated by DB) from Berlin to Cologne is delayed and travellers miss their con-nection From Cologne to Brussels there is only one ICE train every two hours but a Thalys train several times a day in the lsquointerim slotsrsquo Yet the DB traveller is not allowed to take the Thalys trains to Brussels earlier than the next ICE train because there is no lsquohop on the next trainrsquo agreement between Thalys and DB meaning travellers oftenneed 08h49 in-stead of 06h49 for the trip

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13EASY BOOkING

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14

Smart spending Use EU money to improve rail infrastructure capacity and connectivity

EU funding (cohesion funding Connecting Europe Facility Recovery and Resil-ience Facility) makes up an important share of overall transport infrastructure funding especially in the new member states Yet in the past Eu transport funding has not always been used wisely Too much funding went into road and airports and too little into rail This is especially the case for EU cohesion fund-ing around 50 of transport cohesion funding goes into road and only 25 into rail projects Funding decisions are based on plans prepared by the

respective member state and negotiated between member states and the European Commission

European Investment Bank (EIB) transport lending is still supporting unsustainable infrastructure such as airports and new motorway projects Transport is the single largest sector of EIB activity accounting for about 1 in every 4 euros invested by the bank The bank is however in the process of revising both its climate (2020) and transport policies (2021)

Too much money also goes into mega-projects with exploding costs and long delays The Eu-ropean Court of Auditors (2018) cautioned that projects were often chosen based on political de-cisions and not on thorough cost-benefit analyses

3

Only one out of seven border crossings between Germany and Poland is electrifiedThere were once 24 rail links between Germany and Poland of which only seven remain in operation Yet only the border crossing at Frankfurt (Oder) is electrified The trains from Berlin to Warsaw or to Gdansk operate on this line The remaining six border crossings are not yet electrified meaning that trains need to run on diesel The CottbusmdashLegnica link is particularly relevant to connect Berlin to densely populated Southern Poland (Wroclaw Silesia Krakow) To electrify this 138 km link would cost approximately euro100 million but could reduce travel time between Berlin and Wroclaw from currently 45 hours to only 3 hours because Eurocity trains could take a more direct route (currently going through Frankfurt (Oder)) For comparison before the 2nd World War travel time was only 25 hours

PRIORITY

15

The evaluated high-speed projects took 16 years on average cost on average euro25 million per track km but often do not deliver on expectations average speeds rarely reach 200 kmh and only few lines transported more than nine million passengers per year (the benchmark for a successful high-speed line) In contrast small-scale interventions with greater European potential are of-ten not implemented This can be electrification constructing a second track or bypasses to increase capacity and speed or closing smaller missing links on the border

The European Court of Auditors also noted a lack of coordination of cross-border infrastructure projects Member states take a national perspec-tive and do not prioritise closing cross-border gaps This means that infrastructure might have been completed on one side of the border but delayed by years on the other side

The EU should ensure that EU funding

Q Supports modal shift towards rail In the negotiations of the Operational Programmes for Cohesion funding the European Commis-sion should ensure that more budget goes to rail than to road and no new roads are financedin the old member states as they al-ready have a sufficiently dense road network The European Commission should also ask member states to present modal shift tar-gets if they want to access funds for trans-port under the Recovery and Resilience Facility The EIB should in the upcoming review of its Transport Strategy decide to stop funding any airport infrastructure or road network expansion and instead increase funding for electric cross-border rail projects and rolling stock

Q Prioritises rail projects essential for intra-European rail services Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funding should only go into projects that are key to cross-border connectivity (eg for key corridors) and should focus more on low-hanging fruits than on new mega-projects Such inter-ventions should be based on sound cost-benefit analysis When evaluating

Spain has only one international long-distance rail lineSpain has invested massively into high-speed lines over the last decades with euro14 billion (25 of total investment) coming from Eu funds (Inter-national Railway Journal 2020) Yet there is only one international high-speed rail line connecting Barcelona with Montpellier in France The tracks are underused with only two services per day For regional services there are additional border crossings in Portbou-Perpignan (Mediterranean coast) IrunHendaye (Atlantic coast) and Puigcerda (Pyrenees) but none of them is serviced frequently Another difficulty on these regional lines is that trains need to change between standard and Ibe-rian track gauge at the borderThe connection between Spain and Portugal is even worse a rail trip from Madrid to Lisbon (625 km) takes 10h50 and requires three changes as only regional lines operate across borders There are border crossings in Badajoz-Elvas Fregenada-Bar-ca de Alva and Vigo-Porto but they are under-used The only long-distance line to Portugal is a night train from HendayeIrun to Lisbon (currently sus-pended due to Covid-19) The TEN-T network plan foresees a high-speed connection between Madrid and Lisbon as part of the core network but the project is currently not being pursued by either the Portuguese or the Spanish government

16 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

member statesrsquo operational programmes for cohesion fundingrecovery funding the European Commission should suggest to member states that they include rail projects that are key tothe functioning of a European rail network

Q Promotes infrastructure interventions which are accompanied by transformative measures When accessing EU rail infrastructure funding member states should be required to present accompanying policy measures which ensure that the infrastructure is used efficiently

Other policy interventions for supporting European rail

Apart from the above mentioned priorities the EU and member states should address the following obstacles

Q International rail has no strong voice in the current system because member states and incumbent railway operators tend to focus on their own national markets There is also a lack of coordination of infrastructure managers across borders The EU should strengthen the European Rail Agency (ERA) as a traffic control and coordination authority for international rail transport The ERA should be entrusted with forecasting demand assessing the level of required services (destination frequency speed) and allocating capacities The ERA could identify routes that may be of interest to travellers but which are not yet fully exploited and could make this information available to train operators It could also determine which sections of the desired network services would be

Examples of bordercrossings between Spain France Belgium Germany and Poland that need urgent attention

Member States involved Border crossing Important for Required action

Germany mdash Poland Cottbus mdash Forst mdash  Legnica

connecting Berlin with southern Poland electrification of 138 km

France mdash Germany Colmar mdash Freiburg connecting regions build 1 km bridge

Spain mdash France Astigarraga mdash IrunthinspHendaye mdash Bayonne

connecting Bordeaux to northern Spain

upgrade cross-border section

Spain mdash France (Pau) Bedous mdash Canfranc (Zaragoza)

Reconnect central corridor in the Pyrenees

Refurbishment of 30 km railtrack on French side

17SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

commercially viable and where public service obligations (PSOs) would be needed in order to guarantee a service

Q Night train operators and new rail operators have an especially hard time finding trains that can operate in more than one country The second-hand market for interoperable rolling stock and night trains is limited ordering an entire new fleet is prohibitively expensive and no func-tioning leasing market is in place for this specific segment The Eu and member states should help to find new creative finance mechanisms for overcoming the lack of rolling stock and consider establishing a publicly managed rolling stock pool

Q Airlines pay no tax on kerosene receive 85 of allowances of the European Emissions Trading Scheme free of charge and pay no VAT on international tickets This creates an uneven playing field between aviation and rail The European Commission has announced it will review both the EU Energy Taxation Directive and the EU ETS Directive in 2021 It is crucial to use this opportunity to introduce a kerosene tax in-troduce full auctioning for aviation allowances in the EU ETS and create a stronger price for emission allowances

Q Track access charges are prohibitively high in some EU member states EU Regulation suggests that charges should cover only marginal costs but some member states ask for much higher mark ups for example on highly frequented routes or during rush hours This creates an unfair advantage for road transport which pays only infrastructure charges on approximately 3 of the Eu road network For freight rail some member states have reduced charges but not so for passenger rail EU member states should agree to reduce track access charges to direct cost levels This would increase the use of tracks and could bring higher in-come for infrastructure managers in return During the transition period alternative funding to cover losses of infrastructure managers could come from ETS auctioning revenues

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18 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

Why is this important

Rail can help the EU to achieve its climate targets

Rail is the cleanest mode of transport A flight from Paris to Berlin causes at least six times the CO2 emissions of a train journey Counting the also non-CO2 impacts of aviation the flight is responsible for 18 times the climate impact of a rail trip With further electrification and decarbonisation of power generation the carbon emissions of rail could be reduced to close to zero

Intra-European flights on distances less than 1000 km are estimated to cause 28 MtCO2 every year without counting the non-CO2 impacts Seventeen of the 20 most frequented air routes in Europe are for distances less than 700 km In theory almost all of these journeys could be shifted to rail

The better European cities are connected by rail the easier it is to move trans-port away from high-polluting transport modes such as aviation and cars The more attractive and easy-to-use rail services are the more likely it is that people will want to switch

Rail can be a driver for European recovery post-Covid-19

The rail sector employs more than 23 million people (directly and indirectly) and creates a gross value added of euro143 billion of which euro66 billion is created directly by the sector This is larger than the gross value added of air transport The Eu rail supply industry accounts for around 20 of the global market

Rail infrastructure investments usually need more time but add to mid-term stability and growth expectations in the construction sector Some rail in-frastructure modernisation projects could be realised rapidlymdashfor example track switches bypasses European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) The investments needed for the realisation of the Trans-European Transport (TEN-T) core network for example is estimated to create euro45 trillion cumulated GDP and 13 million job-years EU-wide

19SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

Rail connects people cities and countries

In contrast to aviation rail not only services highly frequented core routes but also has a network that reaches into remote regions This network was much more dense 50 years ago both within countries and in border regions While many connections are not in use anymore because of massive divestment from rail many could easily be reinstalled A network of fast long-distance connections combined with dense regional services could make Europeans feel connected to and part of the EU

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20

Annex Specific recommendations for Poland Germany France and Spain

What can Poland do to boost European rail services

1 Create fair conditions for infrastructure access

The current system of infrastructure access charges is extremely asymmetric and strongly favours road over rail transport Rail currently pays infrastructure access charges on 100 of the railway network (including layovers or the use of railway stations) while road (bus) operators pay charges only on 1 of Pol-ish roads and individual drivers pay only for selected sections of motorways representing around 02 of the entire network Infrastructure charges of road and rail should be aligned in all market segmentsmdashincluding international long-distance transport

The second problem is the high level of track access charges for rail operators As a first step track access charges in Poland should be reduced to the level of costs directly induced by the train journey This would reduce charges from the current 60 of total infrastructure maintenance costs to 30 These charges should go entirely to the Railway Fund and thus contribute to the development and construction of new railway lines (as is the case with roads) Maintenance costs should be covered through the general state budget ultimately the sys-tem of charges for transport infrastructure should be dependent on the level of external costs (pollution noise traffic safety etc)

4

21

2 Invest in interoperable rolling stock for international connections including night trains

The lack of interoperable rolling stock is a key obstacle for the launch of new international long-distance connections Due to the very limited number of in-ternational connections and small passenger flows it is not a priority for carrier investment As a result international rail operatorsmdashespecially night trainsmdashhave access only to old wagons of poor quality In addition international trains waste time at borders due to the lack of multi-system locomotives which could run on different voltage and safety systems In Poland an estimated 40 locomo-tives and approximately 350 wagons are needed to operate connections with other Eu countries (Germany Czech Republic Slovakia and Lithuania) To im-prove the quality and frequency of international connections Poland should launch an investment programme for interoperable rolling stock This could also help the country negotiate with the European union on the co-financing of rolling stock or even an Eu-financed rolling stock pool Currently the long-dis-tance segment is the only area of passenger railway in Poland not covered by any EU support programme for rolling stock

3 Elimination of barriers to entry for new railway carriers

One of the basic problems of the international transport offer is its malad-justment to modern market needs Trains run infrequently tickets are much more expensive than domestic services and there are no discounts available on international trains The reason is that the organisation of connections is left to the incumbent railway carriers from individual countries and inflexi-ble procedures for their cooperation (including archaic regulations on tariffs and ticket sales) The example of low-cost airlines shows that an effective instrument for changing this situation is opening the market to competition In the case of commercial services full deregulation of the market should be achieved Where financial support (PSO) is required to maintain traffic compet-itive tenders for carrier selection should be obligatory in accordance with the provisions of the Fourth Railway Package In the case of Poland it is essential to review and clarify the rules for market access The current regulation leaves room for misinterpretation and is commonly used to block the entry of new entrants to the market which may exert positive pressure on the quality scope and accessibility of services for passengers

22 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Germany do to boost European rail services

1 Reduce track access charges for passenger trains

According to Eu law track access charges should generally only reflect direct costs (wear and tear costs) but Germany for instance makes use of an ex-emption and charges full costs for passenger trains (ie including infrastructure maintenance costs) The German track access charges are as a consequence five times as high as the mere direct costs would be (CERRE 2018) This results in very high access charges for train operators accounting for around a third of total operation costs The average costs per kilometre for long-distance trains rose by 18 between 2013 and 2018 For freight rail Germany has already decided to halve its track access charges The same approach to passenger rail could be a first step in incentivising more international services and to make rail more competitive with other transport modes The lost income for infra-structure managers would need to come from Germanyrsquos general budget

2 Establish a competent national authority for long-distance rail

Germany is the only Eu member state without a national contracting authority for rail transport When Germany reformed its rail system in the 1990s it es-tablished in each of the federal states (Bundeslaumlnder) at least one contract-ing authority responsible for organising and ordering regional rail passenger services and for determining public service obligations There are now 27 re-gional contracting authorities but no such authority at federal level Article 87e(4) of the German constitution obliges the federal government to guarantee non-regional services and provides the legal basis for establishing a national contracting authority by law Yet after more than two decades Germany has still not introduced such a law meaning that all long-distancetrains need to run solely on a commercial basis

This has led to gaps in the national network of long-distance trains and raises the question of how Germany can implement its so-called lsquoDeutschlandtaktrsquo

23ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

an integrated timetable for 2030 which includes routes not commercially via-ble It also makes it more difficult to run international trains through Germany Operating international trains is usually more costly because of higher coor-dination and administration costs and the need to buy or lease interoperable rolling stock In contrast to many other Eu member states Germany provides no support for long-distance trains in the form of public service obligations (PSOs) and also seems to object toother governments covering the German part of the route with PSOs as a recent feasibility study on a StockholmmdashBrus-sels night train revealed

3 Electrify border crossings to Poland and Czech Republic

Most international long-distance trains today run on electricity which is not only cleaner but also faster Only 61 of Germanyrsquos railway network is elec-trified and only 27 of its 57 border crossings into neighbouring countries are electrified Most non-electrified border crossings are on the eastern borders 13 into the Czech Republic and eight into Poland The lack of electrification usually means that locomotives need to be changed at the border adding to travel times and that many faster trains cannot run on those sections To better connect with the east Germany should urgently electrify the following sections

Q CottbusmdashForstmdashLegnica 138 km electrification would speed up services from Berlin to Wroclaw and krakow

Q DresdenmdashGoumlrlitzmdashZgorzelec 95 km electrification would improve train connections between Dresden and Wrocław

Q RegensburgmdashFurth im Wald 131 km electrification would speed up ser-vices from Munich to Prague to less than four hours

Q NuumlrnbergmdashSchirndingmdashCheb 140 km electrification would reduce travel time between Nuremberg and Prague to less than four hours

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24 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can France do to boost European rail services

1 Initiate a national strategy for a modal shift from air to rail

Massive modal shift is no longer an option but a necessity if France is to reach its targets of CO2 emissions Yet there is no long-term plan to reduce the number of flights taken for European travel Such a strategy is much needed as it would allow for long-term planning better coordination with the ERA and better coordination between long-distance and local trains

With an extensive network of railways lines already in place international con-nections do not require any major infrastructure works and couldbe created very quickly What is lacking is an integrated strategy to promote train over air for domestic and European travel France should set clear objectives in modal shift by 2030 and 2050 in accordance with national low carbon strategy (SNBC)

As long- and medium-distance train connections (both day and night ) can be an important asset to reach French climate targets France should create further incentives to boost this modal shift introducing VAT on European flights and reducing VAT on train travel Airport expansion projects in France should also be halted as they undermine efforts towards low emission mobility

2 Ease emergence of new players for long-distance connections

As the European rail market opens private and lsquohistoricrsquo incumbents will have the opportunity to operate new European connections This opening of the Eu-ropean train market will be an opportunity for new train companies to operate these trans-European connections To encourage lsquonewcomersrsquo France should guarantee that the services of these private companies will be able to set up their businesses and operate without obstacles set track access charges to its direct costs level and guarantee that newcomers will have access to public infrastructure and tracks

25ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

The opening of the market could also be an opportunity for incumbents such as SNCF As has been done with Thalys or Eurostar SNCF should initiate a part-nership with other national andor private companies to operate one or several of the European corridors that will be designed

It is quite possible to lsquostart smallrsquo operating only on the sections where infra-structure and rolling stock are compatible (ParismdashBerlin for example) and gradually extend the lines to reach full potential such as ParismdashWarsaw

3 Invest in night train rolling stock

Night trains can be a positive alternative to intra-Eu-ropean flights They can serve both domestic and international destinations However night trains in France have been on a downslide for several years The French government has recently announced that two new national train lines will be reopened This trend should be continued as the number of night trains gradually increases and night train lines extended to international destinations

For the night train renaissance France should in-vest euro150 million each year in rolling stock as the current stock is aging and far too limited This in-vestment will incentivise industries to produce new high-quality wagons designed for the night trains

At night some of the French track capacity is re-served for maintenance work and cannot be usedThis challenge can be overcome by starting with a small number of routes providing alternative routes when needed andor subsidising SNCF Reacute-seau so that maintenance work during the night can be lsquoun-optimisedrsquo that is take place over a longer period but without stopping traffic at night copy

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26 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Spain do to boost European rail services

1 Refurbish upgrade and finalise cross-border connections between Spain Portugal and France

Cross-border connections between Spain and its neighbouring countries need an urgent upgrade to allow smooth fast and convenient passenger trips be-tween major southern European cities In the Basque country the rail lines between Hendaye and Irun should be quickly refurbished to avoid unneces-sary stop-overs and guarantee the integration of French high-speed network (ParismdashBordeauxmdashHendaye) with the Spanish high-speed line in construction between DonostiaBilbao and Vittoria (known as Basque Y) and then towards Madrid and other Spanish cities

In Central Pyrenees the historical line between Pau (Nouvelle Aquitaine) and Zaragoza (Aragon) via the monumental Canfranc International station should be relaunched by building the missing 30 km between Bedous (France) and Canfranc (Spain) This final work will increase freight and passenger connectiv-ity improve cross-border security and boost the economy of isolated regions highly dependent on tourism agriculture and industry

On the Atlantic side the cities of Lisbon and Madrid as well as Santiago de Com-postela (Galicia) and Porto need to be integrated into a high-performance network based on the upgrade of outdated rail tracks This connection would ensure the better cohesion and connection of geographically remote and pe-ripheral cities and regions with the rest of the European capitals

2 Relaunch night train services and long-distance conventional lines

Most of the night time and conventional trains between major southern Euro-pean cities (such as MadridmdashParis BarcelonamdashParis MadridmdashBarcelona Ma-dridmdashLisbon) have been abandoned in the last decade due to aggressive and unfair competition from low-cost airlines and long-distance buses However the climate crisis is pushing citizens towards low-carbon transport such as rail

27ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

Spanish citizens deserve affordable night trains and renovated long-distance trains that allow them to save time carbon and money avoiding expensive night hotels at origin and destination Relaunching cross-regional train lines is also a way to support safe inclusive and sustainable tourism in Mediterranean countries dramatically affected by the Covid crisis and related lockdowns

3 Increase the use of the network by opening the market and levelling the playing field

Spain has the longest high-speed network in Europe (2675 km) but it is the least used with only 13 billion passenger-kilometres in 2018 As a comparison France transported 49 billion passenger-km on a high-speed network of almost equal length (2548 km) When looking at passenger and freight rail together use intensity of the Spanish rail network (34 trains per day per route km) is also very low compared to the rest of Europe (146 in the Netherlands 96 in the UK 78 in Germany 43 in France)

As a large part of the high-speed infrastructure has been financed by the Eu the poor performance of rail in Spain is clearly an inefficient use of public money that should be solved by appropriate regulation and incentives The new law for sustainable mobility in the making is a unique opportunity to reverse those negative trends and fix historical pitfalls The opening of the network to new rail operators planned in 2021 should also contribute to increasing the number of passengers without building any new infrastructure Finally the rules for transport operators should be fair between air road and trains by integrating the environmental and social externalities and incentivising cleaner alternatives

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References

BMVI (2020) Trans-Europe Express 20 httpswwwbmvideSharedDocsENDocumentsKinnovative-rail-transport-overnight-21-09-2020pdf__blob=publicationFile (accessed 26 November 2020)

CERRE (2018) Track Access ChargesmdashCase Study Germany httpscerreorgsitescerrefiles180509_CERRE_TrackAccessCharges_CaseStudy_Germa-ny_Finalpdf (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2018) Comprehensive analysis of the existing cross-bor-der rail transport connections and missing links on the internal EU borders httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-detail-publicatione68ec381-62f7-11e8-ab9c-01aa75ed71a1language-en (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2019) Remaining Challenges for EU-wide integrated ticketing and payment services httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-de-tail-publicationaf05b3eb-df43-11e9-9c4e-01aa75ed71a1 (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Court of Auditors (2018) A European high-speed rail network not a reality but an ineffective patchwork ECA Special Report httpswwwecaeuropaeuenPagesDocItemaspxdid=46398 (accessed 26 Novem-ber 2020)

Eurostat (2020) Air passenger transport between the main airports (data sets avia_par_fr avia_par_pl avia_par_de avia_par_es avia_par_b) httpseceuropaeueurostatwebmainhome (accessed 26 November 2020)

Independent Regulatorrsquos Group (IRG) (2020) 8th IRG-Rail Market Monitoring Report httpsirg-raileuirgdocumentsmarket-monitoring (accessed 26 November 2020)

International Railway Journal (2020) Spain urged to rebalance high-speed and suburban rail development 7 August 2020 httpswwwrailjournalcompassengerhigh-speedspain-urged-to-rebalance-high-speed-and-subur-ban-rail-investment (accessed 26 November 2020)

Page 4: Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe...Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe How the 2021 European Year of Rail can˜support the˜European Green Deal and a

4

The European Year of Rail 2021 is a key driver for the European Green Deal

The European union has set itself the target to become climate neutral by 2050 Making mobility more sustainable is necessary for reaching this target Rail could play a key role in the future transport system because it is clean safe andreliable and it could become a symbol for the European Green Deal Eu-rope needs to become more climate friendly and Europe needs to grow closer together A strengthened European rail system could (1) better connect people and businesses in Europe (2) reduce transport emissions by cre-ating alternative options to road transport and aviation and (3) give a green boost to the European economy post-Covid-19

While many actors are praising railways the European rail systemis currently not in the best shape to take a central role in transport systems In almost all EU member states the importance of rail has declined over the last decades due to a heavy focus on road and aviation Rail accounts for only 8 of pas-senger transport and international rail services in particular are not suffi ciently developed Of the 365 cross-border rail links that once existed 149 were non-operational in 2018 and today not even all European capital cities are linked by direct rail services The rail system in the EU is currently not more than a patchwork of national systems with no comprehensive European strategy

In the European Year of Rail 2021 the Eu and national governments need to seize the opportunity to boost European rail services This is an excellent moment for initiating a rail renaissance for the following reasons (1) Covid-19 has reshuffl ed transport systems and travelling habits (2) with the European

5

Green Deal the Eu economy is onthe brink of a new era and (3) there is strong political support for rail from actors across the board

The options for improving international rail are right in front of us on a silver platter EU institutions and players tend to focus on infrastructure development but this is expensive and time consuming Also rail infrastructure projects are often not matched with measures to simultaneously improve service quality to make effi cient use of the new infrastructure There are low-hanging fruits available to the EU which could boost international rail services immediately without the need for large scale investments

PRIORITIES

PRIORITY

1Launch new direct

international services day and night

on existing infrastructure

PRIORITY

2Make booking

of international services attractive

and convenient

PRIORITY

3Invest in cross-border

infrastructure connections

and key corridors

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A European network launch direct international services on European arteries

International rail services between major European cities offer a large untapped potential Most rail services stop at the border or end just on the other side of the border Travellers often need to change trains several times to get from one capital to the othermdashwhich means additional stress and waiting time for the traveller The few direct services often stop too many times along the way and wait too often at major traffic nodes for track capacity Direct trains between all European major cities of neighbouring countries should be an abso-lute minimum but also other metropolitan areas should be connected with direct and frequent services Furthermore long-distance trains should connect well with regional rail services to establish a dense and attractive network

France and Spain have developed high-speed services but abandoned most regional lines

Both France and Spain have invested heavily in high-speed lines France has built 2800 kilometres (km) of high-speed lines since the 1980s which makes it one of the densest high-speed networks in Europe Unfortu-nately the cost of building and maintaining these lines has taken its toll on regional and local lines Between 1998 and 2018 131 of the total length of the French network was closed Local and re-gional infrastructure is aging and in urgent need of renewal For this reason the French government along with SNCF has recently shifted its priorities

to maintaining local lines and postponing several high-speed projectsIn Spain three out of four euros allocated in 2018 to rail infrastructure went into high-speed infra-structure Spain now has the longest high-speed network in Europe (around 3000 km) but it is the least used with only 13 billion passenger-kilometres in 2018 As a comparison France transported 49 bil-lion passenger-kilometres on a high-speed network of almost equal length (IRG 2020) In contrast only a minor share of the Spanish rail budget was invest-ed in suburban rail

1PRIORITY

7

Connecting long-distance trains to regional rail services does not always require new high-speed infrastructure Much of the infrastructure is already there especially in western Europe but is not utilised to its full potential A Euro-pean Commission report found that of 202 operational cross-border rail links only 57 were fully exploited in 2017 (European Commission 2018) In many cases more efficient use of existing high-speed or even conven-tional infrastructure and better coordination of timetables would be sufficient A well-coordinated timetable could also integrate regional and long-distance trains and improve connectivity in Europe

Currently the main obstacles to international services are

Q National perspective incumbent operators focus on their national market (especially on lucrative main routes) and often lack an international vision and experience (eg market potential administrative) Trains stop at lsquoat every haystackrsquo which might make sense from a national perspective but leads to additional travel times for international services

Q Administrative hurdles make international services less attractive for operators For example they need to apply for track capacity with various

WarsawmdashVilnius

WarsawmdashPrague

BerlinmdashCopenhagen

BerlinmdashBrussels

BerlinmdashParis

ParismdashMadrid

MadridmdashLisbon

Neighbours but no direct train betweenhellip

8 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

infrastructure managers drivers are required to speak several languages and rolling stock needs to be designed and licensed for different national electricity signalling and safety systems

What is needed is a European spirit in planning and management of rail services and start-up support for new international services In the 1960s and 70s a network of direct trans-continental services connected Europe across bordersmdashthe Trans-Eu-rope Express (TEE) This joint endeavour of French German Swiss Dutch Belgian Luxembourg and Italian railways only offered first-class services and only connected a number of countries in western and central Europe however the idea might serve as a starting point TEE trains only stopped at major cities and were often scheduled to allow travellers to do a roundtrip in a single day At its height in the

late 1970s the TEE served 31 routes The network also gave impetus to the de-velopment of interoperable trains that could run on different voltage systems

A new East-West European line WarsawmdashBerlinmdashBrusselsmdashParisA direct service between Warsaw and Paris could be the first test case for new international lines There are already direct services on the following sections WarsawmdashBerlin (6h) BerlinmdashCologne ColognemdashBrussels BrusselsmdashParis (1h30)The TEE20 study assumes that WarsawmdashParis journey can currently be done in 13h15 with in-frastructure improvements travel time could be reduced to 12h45 (BMVI 2020) There is already rolling stock (TGV) available that is certified in Ger-many Belgium and France While the certification process in Poland is ongoing the trial service could start with BerlinmdashParisThe route would have a significant potential to shift flights to rail as some sections are heavily frequent-ed flight routes There are more than five million passengers every year who fly the total distance WarsawmdashParis or smaller sections of it For in-stance between Cologne and Paris an average of more than 2500 people fly every day and between Berlin and Paris 3000 (in 2019 Eurostat 2020)

Germany is a key player for new European rail servicesDue to its central location in the EU Germany is crucially important for a European rail network Yet running international services through Germany is difficult as

Q Germany is one of the few EU member states that does not place public service obligations onlong-distance rail services

Q the German infrastructure manager DB Netz charges one of the highest mark-ups on track access charges in the EU Many other EU mem-ber states charge only direct costs for infra-structure use and no additional mark-ups

Q responsibility for train services is devolved to re-gional government cross-border coordination with Germany is more difficult than with other EU member states

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9A EuROPEAN NET WORk

A few decades ago countries in Europe were still connected via many night train routes but most of these have been discontinued These night trains were important connections particularly for longer distances Austrian rail operator OumlBB has begun to revive some of the routes

In September 2020 the German government proposed reviving the TEE idea with eight core international routes together with a network of European night trains (BMVI 2020) The idea of a TEE20 is a good start to lsquoEuropeanisingrsquo train services and overcoming some of the major hur-dles The proposed network could then be ex-panded to reach further into SpainPortugal and south and eastern Europe

How can the EU launch new international rail ser-vices in the short term

Q Get started Agree on one or two corridors to start with (eg WarsawmdashBerlinmdashBrusselsmdashParis or AmsterdammdashParismdashBarcelona)

Q Corridor coordination Task the European Railway Agency (ERA) with coordinating rail ser-vices on these corridors to create a one-stop shop for train operators The agency could provide information on which rolling stock is required and the frequency and speed of the services It could facilitate coordination between infrastructure managers to ensure that services get the required track slots for fast and smooth journeys

Q Start-up support Determine those sections of the corridor that the service can run on a commercial basis and those where it needs subsidies (at least to get started) start-up support should be tied to the condi-tion that low-price tickets are available to make the service accessible to price-sensitive passengers

Q Vision Agree on a comprehensive network of European day and night trains with trains crossing external EU borders into the neighbourhood (especially to the uk Western Balkans Turkey ukraine Belarus and Russia)

A new NorthmdashSouth European line AmsterdammdashBarcelonaAnother test case could be a direct service between Amsterdam and Barcelona Currently there are trains making this journey in three segments Am-sterdammdashBrussels (2h30) BrusselsmdashLyon (3h45) and LyonmdashBarcelona (5h)mdasha total of 11 hours 15 minutes A direct train could connect Amsterdam and Barcelona in 10h15 Rolling stock is available for this route the Siemens Velaro train is certified in Netherlands Belgium France and Spain The route would have significant potential to shift travel from air to rail For example there are on average 6500 people flying from Paris to Barce-lona each day In 2019 almost 85 million people took a flight on the AmsterdammdashBarcelona route or smaller sections of it (Eurostat 2020)

WarsawBerlinHanover

Cologne

Frankfurt

KarlsruheFreiburg

Basel

Lyon

Milan

Bologna

Rome

Montpellier

PerpignanBarcelona

Mulhouse

Amsterdam

Short-term implementation of the TEE20

Sour

ce B

MVI

(202

0)

10

Easy booking Make rail data sharing mandatory

Booking international flights is very easy but buying international rail tickets is the opposite Passengers cannot easily find and compare all available con-nections and prices and bear the risk of delays on the way That needs to change travelling by rail needs to become at least as easy as travelling by plane Consumers should be able to book rail tickets for any connection in the Eu via one-stop shops In the best case this should integrate with other sustainable modes for the first and last miles of the passengerrsquos journey such asbuses trams shared bikes etc

It is not possible to book a train ticket FrankfurtmdashBarcelona onlineIf you try to buy a train ticket from Frankfurt to Barcelona this is what you find

Q Deutsche Bahn shows two connections (fastest is 13h04) that reach Barce-lona within the same day but no tickets are sold

Q SNCF shows no connections Q RENFE shows no connections and this information is available only in Spanish Q Trainline offers tickets for three connections which are different from the

Deutsche Bahn connections and require at least 25 hours of travelling Q Omio shows no connection

The only possible ways to book the trip from Frankfurt to Barcelona are to buy tickets for segments of the journey from the different operatorsrsquo websites con-tact an offline travel agent or queue up at one of the few remaining Deutsche Bahn ticket sale desksAs a comparison Google Flights search shows for the same day approximately 60 connections even during the Covid-19 pandemic

2PRIORITY

11

The Eu has trusted the rail sector to find its own solution but that sector has delayed progress for years Technical solu-tions for integrating information from different train providers are available Independent online ticket vendors like Trainline Omio etc try to assemble tickets from different operators but their websites do not yet show all available rail connections and ticket offers This is because rail operators are reluctant to share all the necessary data with other operators or with independent ticket vendors

The EU needs to require rail operators to share all nec-essary data for easy booking of international rail trips European law currently obliges transport operators to share only some basic data such as static travel and traffic data (19262017 Delegated Regulation of the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) Directive) The regulation does not cover fare data and also leaves it open to member states to require dynamic travel and traffic data (eg information on platform numbers and changes accurate seat plans real-time delays and cancellations predicted arrival time) These data are critical for a seamless journey and for passengers to be able to find alternative connections in case of disruptions (European Commission 2019)

Finland shows the way for multimodal ticketingFinland is the European frontrunner when it comes to multimodal ticketing The 2018 Transport Act obliges all mo-bility service providers to grant access to essential data sales interfaces and reservation interfaces via an Applica-tion Programming Interface (API) The law thus covers not only rail but also public road services Mobility service providers are obliged to cooperate and to enter into agreements based on criteria set out in the Transport Act The Finnish Transport Agency is responsible for monitoring the supply and demand of mobility services and produces statistics from the data ob-tained (European Commission 2019)

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12 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

Some member states move beyond that regulation while others implement only the absolute minimum resulting in legal fragmentation across the EU In Germany for instance Deutsche Bahn (DB) data on timetables and planned disruptions is open to ticket vendors but not data on real-time platforms real-time delays and cancellations or next-day information on delays and cancellation (which is required for claiming compensation)

The EU needs to establish a comprehensive multimodal legal framework for booking ticketing and payment services In its 2021 Work Programme the European Commission announced it would revise the ITS Directive and propose a multimodal ticketing initiative This initiative needs to fulfil the fol-lowing criteria

Q The framework will make access to static and dynamic data manda-tory (including routes stops timetables prices and the availability and accessibility of services)

Q Rail operators will be required to share data via an open Application Programming Interface (API) which must be in machine readable for-mat Many operators have so far failed to build interfaces into their own booking systems

Q The framework should allow ticket vendors to assemble their own discount and promotion packages to compete in an open ticketing market

The EU needs to establish rules to guaran-tee that international rail passengers arrive at their final destination and can hop on the next train in case of missed train connections Rail pas-sengers often need to buy individual tickets from different rail operators for a multi-leg journeymdashand under current rules passengers bear the risk if a connection is missed Rail operators are cur-rently not obliged to sell so-called lsquothrough ticketsrsquo that is one ticket contract for multi-leg journey with a guarantee to arrive at the final destination Also independent ticket vendors that assemble tickets from various operators do not offer such an lsquoarrival guaranteersquo As there are only a few direct interna-tional train connections between major European cities this is a concern for passengers

The BerlinmdashBrussels roulettemdash no lsquohop on the next trainrsquoWhen travelling by train from Berlin to Brussels passengers need to change trains in Cologne Fre-quently the ICE train (operated by DB) from Berlin to Cologne is delayed and travellers miss their con-nection From Cologne to Brussels there is only one ICE train every two hours but a Thalys train several times a day in the lsquointerim slotsrsquo Yet the DB traveller is not allowed to take the Thalys trains to Brussels earlier than the next ICE train because there is no lsquohop on the next trainrsquo agreement between Thalys and DB meaning travellers oftenneed 08h49 in-stead of 06h49 for the trip

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13EASY BOOkING

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14

Smart spending Use EU money to improve rail infrastructure capacity and connectivity

EU funding (cohesion funding Connecting Europe Facility Recovery and Resil-ience Facility) makes up an important share of overall transport infrastructure funding especially in the new member states Yet in the past Eu transport funding has not always been used wisely Too much funding went into road and airports and too little into rail This is especially the case for EU cohesion fund-ing around 50 of transport cohesion funding goes into road and only 25 into rail projects Funding decisions are based on plans prepared by the

respective member state and negotiated between member states and the European Commission

European Investment Bank (EIB) transport lending is still supporting unsustainable infrastructure such as airports and new motorway projects Transport is the single largest sector of EIB activity accounting for about 1 in every 4 euros invested by the bank The bank is however in the process of revising both its climate (2020) and transport policies (2021)

Too much money also goes into mega-projects with exploding costs and long delays The Eu-ropean Court of Auditors (2018) cautioned that projects were often chosen based on political de-cisions and not on thorough cost-benefit analyses

3

Only one out of seven border crossings between Germany and Poland is electrifiedThere were once 24 rail links between Germany and Poland of which only seven remain in operation Yet only the border crossing at Frankfurt (Oder) is electrified The trains from Berlin to Warsaw or to Gdansk operate on this line The remaining six border crossings are not yet electrified meaning that trains need to run on diesel The CottbusmdashLegnica link is particularly relevant to connect Berlin to densely populated Southern Poland (Wroclaw Silesia Krakow) To electrify this 138 km link would cost approximately euro100 million but could reduce travel time between Berlin and Wroclaw from currently 45 hours to only 3 hours because Eurocity trains could take a more direct route (currently going through Frankfurt (Oder)) For comparison before the 2nd World War travel time was only 25 hours

PRIORITY

15

The evaluated high-speed projects took 16 years on average cost on average euro25 million per track km but often do not deliver on expectations average speeds rarely reach 200 kmh and only few lines transported more than nine million passengers per year (the benchmark for a successful high-speed line) In contrast small-scale interventions with greater European potential are of-ten not implemented This can be electrification constructing a second track or bypasses to increase capacity and speed or closing smaller missing links on the border

The European Court of Auditors also noted a lack of coordination of cross-border infrastructure projects Member states take a national perspec-tive and do not prioritise closing cross-border gaps This means that infrastructure might have been completed on one side of the border but delayed by years on the other side

The EU should ensure that EU funding

Q Supports modal shift towards rail In the negotiations of the Operational Programmes for Cohesion funding the European Commis-sion should ensure that more budget goes to rail than to road and no new roads are financedin the old member states as they al-ready have a sufficiently dense road network The European Commission should also ask member states to present modal shift tar-gets if they want to access funds for trans-port under the Recovery and Resilience Facility The EIB should in the upcoming review of its Transport Strategy decide to stop funding any airport infrastructure or road network expansion and instead increase funding for electric cross-border rail projects and rolling stock

Q Prioritises rail projects essential for intra-European rail services Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funding should only go into projects that are key to cross-border connectivity (eg for key corridors) and should focus more on low-hanging fruits than on new mega-projects Such inter-ventions should be based on sound cost-benefit analysis When evaluating

Spain has only one international long-distance rail lineSpain has invested massively into high-speed lines over the last decades with euro14 billion (25 of total investment) coming from Eu funds (Inter-national Railway Journal 2020) Yet there is only one international high-speed rail line connecting Barcelona with Montpellier in France The tracks are underused with only two services per day For regional services there are additional border crossings in Portbou-Perpignan (Mediterranean coast) IrunHendaye (Atlantic coast) and Puigcerda (Pyrenees) but none of them is serviced frequently Another difficulty on these regional lines is that trains need to change between standard and Ibe-rian track gauge at the borderThe connection between Spain and Portugal is even worse a rail trip from Madrid to Lisbon (625 km) takes 10h50 and requires three changes as only regional lines operate across borders There are border crossings in Badajoz-Elvas Fregenada-Bar-ca de Alva and Vigo-Porto but they are under-used The only long-distance line to Portugal is a night train from HendayeIrun to Lisbon (currently sus-pended due to Covid-19) The TEN-T network plan foresees a high-speed connection between Madrid and Lisbon as part of the core network but the project is currently not being pursued by either the Portuguese or the Spanish government

16 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

member statesrsquo operational programmes for cohesion fundingrecovery funding the European Commission should suggest to member states that they include rail projects that are key tothe functioning of a European rail network

Q Promotes infrastructure interventions which are accompanied by transformative measures When accessing EU rail infrastructure funding member states should be required to present accompanying policy measures which ensure that the infrastructure is used efficiently

Other policy interventions for supporting European rail

Apart from the above mentioned priorities the EU and member states should address the following obstacles

Q International rail has no strong voice in the current system because member states and incumbent railway operators tend to focus on their own national markets There is also a lack of coordination of infrastructure managers across borders The EU should strengthen the European Rail Agency (ERA) as a traffic control and coordination authority for international rail transport The ERA should be entrusted with forecasting demand assessing the level of required services (destination frequency speed) and allocating capacities The ERA could identify routes that may be of interest to travellers but which are not yet fully exploited and could make this information available to train operators It could also determine which sections of the desired network services would be

Examples of bordercrossings between Spain France Belgium Germany and Poland that need urgent attention

Member States involved Border crossing Important for Required action

Germany mdash Poland Cottbus mdash Forst mdash  Legnica

connecting Berlin with southern Poland electrification of 138 km

France mdash Germany Colmar mdash Freiburg connecting regions build 1 km bridge

Spain mdash France Astigarraga mdash IrunthinspHendaye mdash Bayonne

connecting Bordeaux to northern Spain

upgrade cross-border section

Spain mdash France (Pau) Bedous mdash Canfranc (Zaragoza)

Reconnect central corridor in the Pyrenees

Refurbishment of 30 km railtrack on French side

17SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

commercially viable and where public service obligations (PSOs) would be needed in order to guarantee a service

Q Night train operators and new rail operators have an especially hard time finding trains that can operate in more than one country The second-hand market for interoperable rolling stock and night trains is limited ordering an entire new fleet is prohibitively expensive and no func-tioning leasing market is in place for this specific segment The Eu and member states should help to find new creative finance mechanisms for overcoming the lack of rolling stock and consider establishing a publicly managed rolling stock pool

Q Airlines pay no tax on kerosene receive 85 of allowances of the European Emissions Trading Scheme free of charge and pay no VAT on international tickets This creates an uneven playing field between aviation and rail The European Commission has announced it will review both the EU Energy Taxation Directive and the EU ETS Directive in 2021 It is crucial to use this opportunity to introduce a kerosene tax in-troduce full auctioning for aviation allowances in the EU ETS and create a stronger price for emission allowances

Q Track access charges are prohibitively high in some EU member states EU Regulation suggests that charges should cover only marginal costs but some member states ask for much higher mark ups for example on highly frequented routes or during rush hours This creates an unfair advantage for road transport which pays only infrastructure charges on approximately 3 of the Eu road network For freight rail some member states have reduced charges but not so for passenger rail EU member states should agree to reduce track access charges to direct cost levels This would increase the use of tracks and could bring higher in-come for infrastructure managers in return During the transition period alternative funding to cover losses of infrastructure managers could come from ETS auctioning revenues

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18 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

Why is this important

Rail can help the EU to achieve its climate targets

Rail is the cleanest mode of transport A flight from Paris to Berlin causes at least six times the CO2 emissions of a train journey Counting the also non-CO2 impacts of aviation the flight is responsible for 18 times the climate impact of a rail trip With further electrification and decarbonisation of power generation the carbon emissions of rail could be reduced to close to zero

Intra-European flights on distances less than 1000 km are estimated to cause 28 MtCO2 every year without counting the non-CO2 impacts Seventeen of the 20 most frequented air routes in Europe are for distances less than 700 km In theory almost all of these journeys could be shifted to rail

The better European cities are connected by rail the easier it is to move trans-port away from high-polluting transport modes such as aviation and cars The more attractive and easy-to-use rail services are the more likely it is that people will want to switch

Rail can be a driver for European recovery post-Covid-19

The rail sector employs more than 23 million people (directly and indirectly) and creates a gross value added of euro143 billion of which euro66 billion is created directly by the sector This is larger than the gross value added of air transport The Eu rail supply industry accounts for around 20 of the global market

Rail infrastructure investments usually need more time but add to mid-term stability and growth expectations in the construction sector Some rail in-frastructure modernisation projects could be realised rapidlymdashfor example track switches bypasses European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) The investments needed for the realisation of the Trans-European Transport (TEN-T) core network for example is estimated to create euro45 trillion cumulated GDP and 13 million job-years EU-wide

19SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

Rail connects people cities and countries

In contrast to aviation rail not only services highly frequented core routes but also has a network that reaches into remote regions This network was much more dense 50 years ago both within countries and in border regions While many connections are not in use anymore because of massive divestment from rail many could easily be reinstalled A network of fast long-distance connections combined with dense regional services could make Europeans feel connected to and part of the EU

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20

Annex Specific recommendations for Poland Germany France and Spain

What can Poland do to boost European rail services

1 Create fair conditions for infrastructure access

The current system of infrastructure access charges is extremely asymmetric and strongly favours road over rail transport Rail currently pays infrastructure access charges on 100 of the railway network (including layovers or the use of railway stations) while road (bus) operators pay charges only on 1 of Pol-ish roads and individual drivers pay only for selected sections of motorways representing around 02 of the entire network Infrastructure charges of road and rail should be aligned in all market segmentsmdashincluding international long-distance transport

The second problem is the high level of track access charges for rail operators As a first step track access charges in Poland should be reduced to the level of costs directly induced by the train journey This would reduce charges from the current 60 of total infrastructure maintenance costs to 30 These charges should go entirely to the Railway Fund and thus contribute to the development and construction of new railway lines (as is the case with roads) Maintenance costs should be covered through the general state budget ultimately the sys-tem of charges for transport infrastructure should be dependent on the level of external costs (pollution noise traffic safety etc)

4

21

2 Invest in interoperable rolling stock for international connections including night trains

The lack of interoperable rolling stock is a key obstacle for the launch of new international long-distance connections Due to the very limited number of in-ternational connections and small passenger flows it is not a priority for carrier investment As a result international rail operatorsmdashespecially night trainsmdashhave access only to old wagons of poor quality In addition international trains waste time at borders due to the lack of multi-system locomotives which could run on different voltage and safety systems In Poland an estimated 40 locomo-tives and approximately 350 wagons are needed to operate connections with other Eu countries (Germany Czech Republic Slovakia and Lithuania) To im-prove the quality and frequency of international connections Poland should launch an investment programme for interoperable rolling stock This could also help the country negotiate with the European union on the co-financing of rolling stock or even an Eu-financed rolling stock pool Currently the long-dis-tance segment is the only area of passenger railway in Poland not covered by any EU support programme for rolling stock

3 Elimination of barriers to entry for new railway carriers

One of the basic problems of the international transport offer is its malad-justment to modern market needs Trains run infrequently tickets are much more expensive than domestic services and there are no discounts available on international trains The reason is that the organisation of connections is left to the incumbent railway carriers from individual countries and inflexi-ble procedures for their cooperation (including archaic regulations on tariffs and ticket sales) The example of low-cost airlines shows that an effective instrument for changing this situation is opening the market to competition In the case of commercial services full deregulation of the market should be achieved Where financial support (PSO) is required to maintain traffic compet-itive tenders for carrier selection should be obligatory in accordance with the provisions of the Fourth Railway Package In the case of Poland it is essential to review and clarify the rules for market access The current regulation leaves room for misinterpretation and is commonly used to block the entry of new entrants to the market which may exert positive pressure on the quality scope and accessibility of services for passengers

22 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Germany do to boost European rail services

1 Reduce track access charges for passenger trains

According to Eu law track access charges should generally only reflect direct costs (wear and tear costs) but Germany for instance makes use of an ex-emption and charges full costs for passenger trains (ie including infrastructure maintenance costs) The German track access charges are as a consequence five times as high as the mere direct costs would be (CERRE 2018) This results in very high access charges for train operators accounting for around a third of total operation costs The average costs per kilometre for long-distance trains rose by 18 between 2013 and 2018 For freight rail Germany has already decided to halve its track access charges The same approach to passenger rail could be a first step in incentivising more international services and to make rail more competitive with other transport modes The lost income for infra-structure managers would need to come from Germanyrsquos general budget

2 Establish a competent national authority for long-distance rail

Germany is the only Eu member state without a national contracting authority for rail transport When Germany reformed its rail system in the 1990s it es-tablished in each of the federal states (Bundeslaumlnder) at least one contract-ing authority responsible for organising and ordering regional rail passenger services and for determining public service obligations There are now 27 re-gional contracting authorities but no such authority at federal level Article 87e(4) of the German constitution obliges the federal government to guarantee non-regional services and provides the legal basis for establishing a national contracting authority by law Yet after more than two decades Germany has still not introduced such a law meaning that all long-distancetrains need to run solely on a commercial basis

This has led to gaps in the national network of long-distance trains and raises the question of how Germany can implement its so-called lsquoDeutschlandtaktrsquo

23ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

an integrated timetable for 2030 which includes routes not commercially via-ble It also makes it more difficult to run international trains through Germany Operating international trains is usually more costly because of higher coor-dination and administration costs and the need to buy or lease interoperable rolling stock In contrast to many other Eu member states Germany provides no support for long-distance trains in the form of public service obligations (PSOs) and also seems to object toother governments covering the German part of the route with PSOs as a recent feasibility study on a StockholmmdashBrus-sels night train revealed

3 Electrify border crossings to Poland and Czech Republic

Most international long-distance trains today run on electricity which is not only cleaner but also faster Only 61 of Germanyrsquos railway network is elec-trified and only 27 of its 57 border crossings into neighbouring countries are electrified Most non-electrified border crossings are on the eastern borders 13 into the Czech Republic and eight into Poland The lack of electrification usually means that locomotives need to be changed at the border adding to travel times and that many faster trains cannot run on those sections To better connect with the east Germany should urgently electrify the following sections

Q CottbusmdashForstmdashLegnica 138 km electrification would speed up services from Berlin to Wroclaw and krakow

Q DresdenmdashGoumlrlitzmdashZgorzelec 95 km electrification would improve train connections between Dresden and Wrocław

Q RegensburgmdashFurth im Wald 131 km electrification would speed up ser-vices from Munich to Prague to less than four hours

Q NuumlrnbergmdashSchirndingmdashCheb 140 km electrification would reduce travel time between Nuremberg and Prague to less than four hours

copy Natalya Vilman dreamstimecom

24 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can France do to boost European rail services

1 Initiate a national strategy for a modal shift from air to rail

Massive modal shift is no longer an option but a necessity if France is to reach its targets of CO2 emissions Yet there is no long-term plan to reduce the number of flights taken for European travel Such a strategy is much needed as it would allow for long-term planning better coordination with the ERA and better coordination between long-distance and local trains

With an extensive network of railways lines already in place international con-nections do not require any major infrastructure works and couldbe created very quickly What is lacking is an integrated strategy to promote train over air for domestic and European travel France should set clear objectives in modal shift by 2030 and 2050 in accordance with national low carbon strategy (SNBC)

As long- and medium-distance train connections (both day and night ) can be an important asset to reach French climate targets France should create further incentives to boost this modal shift introducing VAT on European flights and reducing VAT on train travel Airport expansion projects in France should also be halted as they undermine efforts towards low emission mobility

2 Ease emergence of new players for long-distance connections

As the European rail market opens private and lsquohistoricrsquo incumbents will have the opportunity to operate new European connections This opening of the Eu-ropean train market will be an opportunity for new train companies to operate these trans-European connections To encourage lsquonewcomersrsquo France should guarantee that the services of these private companies will be able to set up their businesses and operate without obstacles set track access charges to its direct costs level and guarantee that newcomers will have access to public infrastructure and tracks

25ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

The opening of the market could also be an opportunity for incumbents such as SNCF As has been done with Thalys or Eurostar SNCF should initiate a part-nership with other national andor private companies to operate one or several of the European corridors that will be designed

It is quite possible to lsquostart smallrsquo operating only on the sections where infra-structure and rolling stock are compatible (ParismdashBerlin for example) and gradually extend the lines to reach full potential such as ParismdashWarsaw

3 Invest in night train rolling stock

Night trains can be a positive alternative to intra-Eu-ropean flights They can serve both domestic and international destinations However night trains in France have been on a downslide for several years The French government has recently announced that two new national train lines will be reopened This trend should be continued as the number of night trains gradually increases and night train lines extended to international destinations

For the night train renaissance France should in-vest euro150 million each year in rolling stock as the current stock is aging and far too limited This in-vestment will incentivise industries to produce new high-quality wagons designed for the night trains

At night some of the French track capacity is re-served for maintenance work and cannot be usedThis challenge can be overcome by starting with a small number of routes providing alternative routes when needed andor subsidising SNCF Reacute-seau so that maintenance work during the night can be lsquoun-optimisedrsquo that is take place over a longer period but without stopping traffic at night copy

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26 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Spain do to boost European rail services

1 Refurbish upgrade and finalise cross-border connections between Spain Portugal and France

Cross-border connections between Spain and its neighbouring countries need an urgent upgrade to allow smooth fast and convenient passenger trips be-tween major southern European cities In the Basque country the rail lines between Hendaye and Irun should be quickly refurbished to avoid unneces-sary stop-overs and guarantee the integration of French high-speed network (ParismdashBordeauxmdashHendaye) with the Spanish high-speed line in construction between DonostiaBilbao and Vittoria (known as Basque Y) and then towards Madrid and other Spanish cities

In Central Pyrenees the historical line between Pau (Nouvelle Aquitaine) and Zaragoza (Aragon) via the monumental Canfranc International station should be relaunched by building the missing 30 km between Bedous (France) and Canfranc (Spain) This final work will increase freight and passenger connectiv-ity improve cross-border security and boost the economy of isolated regions highly dependent on tourism agriculture and industry

On the Atlantic side the cities of Lisbon and Madrid as well as Santiago de Com-postela (Galicia) and Porto need to be integrated into a high-performance network based on the upgrade of outdated rail tracks This connection would ensure the better cohesion and connection of geographically remote and pe-ripheral cities and regions with the rest of the European capitals

2 Relaunch night train services and long-distance conventional lines

Most of the night time and conventional trains between major southern Euro-pean cities (such as MadridmdashParis BarcelonamdashParis MadridmdashBarcelona Ma-dridmdashLisbon) have been abandoned in the last decade due to aggressive and unfair competition from low-cost airlines and long-distance buses However the climate crisis is pushing citizens towards low-carbon transport such as rail

27ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

Spanish citizens deserve affordable night trains and renovated long-distance trains that allow them to save time carbon and money avoiding expensive night hotels at origin and destination Relaunching cross-regional train lines is also a way to support safe inclusive and sustainable tourism in Mediterranean countries dramatically affected by the Covid crisis and related lockdowns

3 Increase the use of the network by opening the market and levelling the playing field

Spain has the longest high-speed network in Europe (2675 km) but it is the least used with only 13 billion passenger-kilometres in 2018 As a comparison France transported 49 billion passenger-km on a high-speed network of almost equal length (2548 km) When looking at passenger and freight rail together use intensity of the Spanish rail network (34 trains per day per route km) is also very low compared to the rest of Europe (146 in the Netherlands 96 in the UK 78 in Germany 43 in France)

As a large part of the high-speed infrastructure has been financed by the Eu the poor performance of rail in Spain is clearly an inefficient use of public money that should be solved by appropriate regulation and incentives The new law for sustainable mobility in the making is a unique opportunity to reverse those negative trends and fix historical pitfalls The opening of the network to new rail operators planned in 2021 should also contribute to increasing the number of passengers without building any new infrastructure Finally the rules for transport operators should be fair between air road and trains by integrating the environmental and social externalities and incentivising cleaner alternatives

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28

References

BMVI (2020) Trans-Europe Express 20 httpswwwbmvideSharedDocsENDocumentsKinnovative-rail-transport-overnight-21-09-2020pdf__blob=publicationFile (accessed 26 November 2020)

CERRE (2018) Track Access ChargesmdashCase Study Germany httpscerreorgsitescerrefiles180509_CERRE_TrackAccessCharges_CaseStudy_Germa-ny_Finalpdf (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2018) Comprehensive analysis of the existing cross-bor-der rail transport connections and missing links on the internal EU borders httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-detail-publicatione68ec381-62f7-11e8-ab9c-01aa75ed71a1language-en (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2019) Remaining Challenges for EU-wide integrated ticketing and payment services httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-de-tail-publicationaf05b3eb-df43-11e9-9c4e-01aa75ed71a1 (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Court of Auditors (2018) A European high-speed rail network not a reality but an ineffective patchwork ECA Special Report httpswwwecaeuropaeuenPagesDocItemaspxdid=46398 (accessed 26 Novem-ber 2020)

Eurostat (2020) Air passenger transport between the main airports (data sets avia_par_fr avia_par_pl avia_par_de avia_par_es avia_par_b) httpseceuropaeueurostatwebmainhome (accessed 26 November 2020)

Independent Regulatorrsquos Group (IRG) (2020) 8th IRG-Rail Market Monitoring Report httpsirg-raileuirgdocumentsmarket-monitoring (accessed 26 November 2020)

International Railway Journal (2020) Spain urged to rebalance high-speed and suburban rail development 7 August 2020 httpswwwrailjournalcompassengerhigh-speedspain-urged-to-rebalance-high-speed-and-subur-ban-rail-investment (accessed 26 November 2020)

Page 5: Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe...Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe How the 2021 European Year of Rail can˜support the˜European Green Deal and a

5

Green Deal the Eu economy is onthe brink of a new era and (3) there is strong political support for rail from actors across the board

The options for improving international rail are right in front of us on a silver platter EU institutions and players tend to focus on infrastructure development but this is expensive and time consuming Also rail infrastructure projects are often not matched with measures to simultaneously improve service quality to make effi cient use of the new infrastructure There are low-hanging fruits available to the EU which could boost international rail services immediately without the need for large scale investments

PRIORITIES

PRIORITY

1Launch new direct

international services day and night

on existing infrastructure

PRIORITY

2Make booking

of international services attractive

and convenient

PRIORITY

3Invest in cross-border

infrastructure connections

and key corridors

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6

A European network launch direct international services on European arteries

International rail services between major European cities offer a large untapped potential Most rail services stop at the border or end just on the other side of the border Travellers often need to change trains several times to get from one capital to the othermdashwhich means additional stress and waiting time for the traveller The few direct services often stop too many times along the way and wait too often at major traffic nodes for track capacity Direct trains between all European major cities of neighbouring countries should be an abso-lute minimum but also other metropolitan areas should be connected with direct and frequent services Furthermore long-distance trains should connect well with regional rail services to establish a dense and attractive network

France and Spain have developed high-speed services but abandoned most regional lines

Both France and Spain have invested heavily in high-speed lines France has built 2800 kilometres (km) of high-speed lines since the 1980s which makes it one of the densest high-speed networks in Europe Unfortu-nately the cost of building and maintaining these lines has taken its toll on regional and local lines Between 1998 and 2018 131 of the total length of the French network was closed Local and re-gional infrastructure is aging and in urgent need of renewal For this reason the French government along with SNCF has recently shifted its priorities

to maintaining local lines and postponing several high-speed projectsIn Spain three out of four euros allocated in 2018 to rail infrastructure went into high-speed infra-structure Spain now has the longest high-speed network in Europe (around 3000 km) but it is the least used with only 13 billion passenger-kilometres in 2018 As a comparison France transported 49 bil-lion passenger-kilometres on a high-speed network of almost equal length (IRG 2020) In contrast only a minor share of the Spanish rail budget was invest-ed in suburban rail

1PRIORITY

7

Connecting long-distance trains to regional rail services does not always require new high-speed infrastructure Much of the infrastructure is already there especially in western Europe but is not utilised to its full potential A Euro-pean Commission report found that of 202 operational cross-border rail links only 57 were fully exploited in 2017 (European Commission 2018) In many cases more efficient use of existing high-speed or even conven-tional infrastructure and better coordination of timetables would be sufficient A well-coordinated timetable could also integrate regional and long-distance trains and improve connectivity in Europe

Currently the main obstacles to international services are

Q National perspective incumbent operators focus on their national market (especially on lucrative main routes) and often lack an international vision and experience (eg market potential administrative) Trains stop at lsquoat every haystackrsquo which might make sense from a national perspective but leads to additional travel times for international services

Q Administrative hurdles make international services less attractive for operators For example they need to apply for track capacity with various

WarsawmdashVilnius

WarsawmdashPrague

BerlinmdashCopenhagen

BerlinmdashBrussels

BerlinmdashParis

ParismdashMadrid

MadridmdashLisbon

Neighbours but no direct train betweenhellip

8 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

infrastructure managers drivers are required to speak several languages and rolling stock needs to be designed and licensed for different national electricity signalling and safety systems

What is needed is a European spirit in planning and management of rail services and start-up support for new international services In the 1960s and 70s a network of direct trans-continental services connected Europe across bordersmdashthe Trans-Eu-rope Express (TEE) This joint endeavour of French German Swiss Dutch Belgian Luxembourg and Italian railways only offered first-class services and only connected a number of countries in western and central Europe however the idea might serve as a starting point TEE trains only stopped at major cities and were often scheduled to allow travellers to do a roundtrip in a single day At its height in the

late 1970s the TEE served 31 routes The network also gave impetus to the de-velopment of interoperable trains that could run on different voltage systems

A new East-West European line WarsawmdashBerlinmdashBrusselsmdashParisA direct service between Warsaw and Paris could be the first test case for new international lines There are already direct services on the following sections WarsawmdashBerlin (6h) BerlinmdashCologne ColognemdashBrussels BrusselsmdashParis (1h30)The TEE20 study assumes that WarsawmdashParis journey can currently be done in 13h15 with in-frastructure improvements travel time could be reduced to 12h45 (BMVI 2020) There is already rolling stock (TGV) available that is certified in Ger-many Belgium and France While the certification process in Poland is ongoing the trial service could start with BerlinmdashParisThe route would have a significant potential to shift flights to rail as some sections are heavily frequent-ed flight routes There are more than five million passengers every year who fly the total distance WarsawmdashParis or smaller sections of it For in-stance between Cologne and Paris an average of more than 2500 people fly every day and between Berlin and Paris 3000 (in 2019 Eurostat 2020)

Germany is a key player for new European rail servicesDue to its central location in the EU Germany is crucially important for a European rail network Yet running international services through Germany is difficult as

Q Germany is one of the few EU member states that does not place public service obligations onlong-distance rail services

Q the German infrastructure manager DB Netz charges one of the highest mark-ups on track access charges in the EU Many other EU mem-ber states charge only direct costs for infra-structure use and no additional mark-ups

Q responsibility for train services is devolved to re-gional government cross-border coordination with Germany is more difficult than with other EU member states

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9A EuROPEAN NET WORk

A few decades ago countries in Europe were still connected via many night train routes but most of these have been discontinued These night trains were important connections particularly for longer distances Austrian rail operator OumlBB has begun to revive some of the routes

In September 2020 the German government proposed reviving the TEE idea with eight core international routes together with a network of European night trains (BMVI 2020) The idea of a TEE20 is a good start to lsquoEuropeanisingrsquo train services and overcoming some of the major hur-dles The proposed network could then be ex-panded to reach further into SpainPortugal and south and eastern Europe

How can the EU launch new international rail ser-vices in the short term

Q Get started Agree on one or two corridors to start with (eg WarsawmdashBerlinmdashBrusselsmdashParis or AmsterdammdashParismdashBarcelona)

Q Corridor coordination Task the European Railway Agency (ERA) with coordinating rail ser-vices on these corridors to create a one-stop shop for train operators The agency could provide information on which rolling stock is required and the frequency and speed of the services It could facilitate coordination between infrastructure managers to ensure that services get the required track slots for fast and smooth journeys

Q Start-up support Determine those sections of the corridor that the service can run on a commercial basis and those where it needs subsidies (at least to get started) start-up support should be tied to the condi-tion that low-price tickets are available to make the service accessible to price-sensitive passengers

Q Vision Agree on a comprehensive network of European day and night trains with trains crossing external EU borders into the neighbourhood (especially to the uk Western Balkans Turkey ukraine Belarus and Russia)

A new NorthmdashSouth European line AmsterdammdashBarcelonaAnother test case could be a direct service between Amsterdam and Barcelona Currently there are trains making this journey in three segments Am-sterdammdashBrussels (2h30) BrusselsmdashLyon (3h45) and LyonmdashBarcelona (5h)mdasha total of 11 hours 15 minutes A direct train could connect Amsterdam and Barcelona in 10h15 Rolling stock is available for this route the Siemens Velaro train is certified in Netherlands Belgium France and Spain The route would have significant potential to shift travel from air to rail For example there are on average 6500 people flying from Paris to Barce-lona each day In 2019 almost 85 million people took a flight on the AmsterdammdashBarcelona route or smaller sections of it (Eurostat 2020)

WarsawBerlinHanover

Cologne

Frankfurt

KarlsruheFreiburg

Basel

Lyon

Milan

Bologna

Rome

Montpellier

PerpignanBarcelona

Mulhouse

Amsterdam

Short-term implementation of the TEE20

Sour

ce B

MVI

(202

0)

10

Easy booking Make rail data sharing mandatory

Booking international flights is very easy but buying international rail tickets is the opposite Passengers cannot easily find and compare all available con-nections and prices and bear the risk of delays on the way That needs to change travelling by rail needs to become at least as easy as travelling by plane Consumers should be able to book rail tickets for any connection in the Eu via one-stop shops In the best case this should integrate with other sustainable modes for the first and last miles of the passengerrsquos journey such asbuses trams shared bikes etc

It is not possible to book a train ticket FrankfurtmdashBarcelona onlineIf you try to buy a train ticket from Frankfurt to Barcelona this is what you find

Q Deutsche Bahn shows two connections (fastest is 13h04) that reach Barce-lona within the same day but no tickets are sold

Q SNCF shows no connections Q RENFE shows no connections and this information is available only in Spanish Q Trainline offers tickets for three connections which are different from the

Deutsche Bahn connections and require at least 25 hours of travelling Q Omio shows no connection

The only possible ways to book the trip from Frankfurt to Barcelona are to buy tickets for segments of the journey from the different operatorsrsquo websites con-tact an offline travel agent or queue up at one of the few remaining Deutsche Bahn ticket sale desksAs a comparison Google Flights search shows for the same day approximately 60 connections even during the Covid-19 pandemic

2PRIORITY

11

The Eu has trusted the rail sector to find its own solution but that sector has delayed progress for years Technical solu-tions for integrating information from different train providers are available Independent online ticket vendors like Trainline Omio etc try to assemble tickets from different operators but their websites do not yet show all available rail connections and ticket offers This is because rail operators are reluctant to share all the necessary data with other operators or with independent ticket vendors

The EU needs to require rail operators to share all nec-essary data for easy booking of international rail trips European law currently obliges transport operators to share only some basic data such as static travel and traffic data (19262017 Delegated Regulation of the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) Directive) The regulation does not cover fare data and also leaves it open to member states to require dynamic travel and traffic data (eg information on platform numbers and changes accurate seat plans real-time delays and cancellations predicted arrival time) These data are critical for a seamless journey and for passengers to be able to find alternative connections in case of disruptions (European Commission 2019)

Finland shows the way for multimodal ticketingFinland is the European frontrunner when it comes to multimodal ticketing The 2018 Transport Act obliges all mo-bility service providers to grant access to essential data sales interfaces and reservation interfaces via an Applica-tion Programming Interface (API) The law thus covers not only rail but also public road services Mobility service providers are obliged to cooperate and to enter into agreements based on criteria set out in the Transport Act The Finnish Transport Agency is responsible for monitoring the supply and demand of mobility services and produces statistics from the data ob-tained (European Commission 2019)

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12 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

Some member states move beyond that regulation while others implement only the absolute minimum resulting in legal fragmentation across the EU In Germany for instance Deutsche Bahn (DB) data on timetables and planned disruptions is open to ticket vendors but not data on real-time platforms real-time delays and cancellations or next-day information on delays and cancellation (which is required for claiming compensation)

The EU needs to establish a comprehensive multimodal legal framework for booking ticketing and payment services In its 2021 Work Programme the European Commission announced it would revise the ITS Directive and propose a multimodal ticketing initiative This initiative needs to fulfil the fol-lowing criteria

Q The framework will make access to static and dynamic data manda-tory (including routes stops timetables prices and the availability and accessibility of services)

Q Rail operators will be required to share data via an open Application Programming Interface (API) which must be in machine readable for-mat Many operators have so far failed to build interfaces into their own booking systems

Q The framework should allow ticket vendors to assemble their own discount and promotion packages to compete in an open ticketing market

The EU needs to establish rules to guaran-tee that international rail passengers arrive at their final destination and can hop on the next train in case of missed train connections Rail pas-sengers often need to buy individual tickets from different rail operators for a multi-leg journeymdashand under current rules passengers bear the risk if a connection is missed Rail operators are cur-rently not obliged to sell so-called lsquothrough ticketsrsquo that is one ticket contract for multi-leg journey with a guarantee to arrive at the final destination Also independent ticket vendors that assemble tickets from various operators do not offer such an lsquoarrival guaranteersquo As there are only a few direct interna-tional train connections between major European cities this is a concern for passengers

The BerlinmdashBrussels roulettemdash no lsquohop on the next trainrsquoWhen travelling by train from Berlin to Brussels passengers need to change trains in Cologne Fre-quently the ICE train (operated by DB) from Berlin to Cologne is delayed and travellers miss their con-nection From Cologne to Brussels there is only one ICE train every two hours but a Thalys train several times a day in the lsquointerim slotsrsquo Yet the DB traveller is not allowed to take the Thalys trains to Brussels earlier than the next ICE train because there is no lsquohop on the next trainrsquo agreement between Thalys and DB meaning travellers oftenneed 08h49 in-stead of 06h49 for the trip

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13EASY BOOkING

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14

Smart spending Use EU money to improve rail infrastructure capacity and connectivity

EU funding (cohesion funding Connecting Europe Facility Recovery and Resil-ience Facility) makes up an important share of overall transport infrastructure funding especially in the new member states Yet in the past Eu transport funding has not always been used wisely Too much funding went into road and airports and too little into rail This is especially the case for EU cohesion fund-ing around 50 of transport cohesion funding goes into road and only 25 into rail projects Funding decisions are based on plans prepared by the

respective member state and negotiated between member states and the European Commission

European Investment Bank (EIB) transport lending is still supporting unsustainable infrastructure such as airports and new motorway projects Transport is the single largest sector of EIB activity accounting for about 1 in every 4 euros invested by the bank The bank is however in the process of revising both its climate (2020) and transport policies (2021)

Too much money also goes into mega-projects with exploding costs and long delays The Eu-ropean Court of Auditors (2018) cautioned that projects were often chosen based on political de-cisions and not on thorough cost-benefit analyses

3

Only one out of seven border crossings between Germany and Poland is electrifiedThere were once 24 rail links between Germany and Poland of which only seven remain in operation Yet only the border crossing at Frankfurt (Oder) is electrified The trains from Berlin to Warsaw or to Gdansk operate on this line The remaining six border crossings are not yet electrified meaning that trains need to run on diesel The CottbusmdashLegnica link is particularly relevant to connect Berlin to densely populated Southern Poland (Wroclaw Silesia Krakow) To electrify this 138 km link would cost approximately euro100 million but could reduce travel time between Berlin and Wroclaw from currently 45 hours to only 3 hours because Eurocity trains could take a more direct route (currently going through Frankfurt (Oder)) For comparison before the 2nd World War travel time was only 25 hours

PRIORITY

15

The evaluated high-speed projects took 16 years on average cost on average euro25 million per track km but often do not deliver on expectations average speeds rarely reach 200 kmh and only few lines transported more than nine million passengers per year (the benchmark for a successful high-speed line) In contrast small-scale interventions with greater European potential are of-ten not implemented This can be electrification constructing a second track or bypasses to increase capacity and speed or closing smaller missing links on the border

The European Court of Auditors also noted a lack of coordination of cross-border infrastructure projects Member states take a national perspec-tive and do not prioritise closing cross-border gaps This means that infrastructure might have been completed on one side of the border but delayed by years on the other side

The EU should ensure that EU funding

Q Supports modal shift towards rail In the negotiations of the Operational Programmes for Cohesion funding the European Commis-sion should ensure that more budget goes to rail than to road and no new roads are financedin the old member states as they al-ready have a sufficiently dense road network The European Commission should also ask member states to present modal shift tar-gets if they want to access funds for trans-port under the Recovery and Resilience Facility The EIB should in the upcoming review of its Transport Strategy decide to stop funding any airport infrastructure or road network expansion and instead increase funding for electric cross-border rail projects and rolling stock

Q Prioritises rail projects essential for intra-European rail services Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funding should only go into projects that are key to cross-border connectivity (eg for key corridors) and should focus more on low-hanging fruits than on new mega-projects Such inter-ventions should be based on sound cost-benefit analysis When evaluating

Spain has only one international long-distance rail lineSpain has invested massively into high-speed lines over the last decades with euro14 billion (25 of total investment) coming from Eu funds (Inter-national Railway Journal 2020) Yet there is only one international high-speed rail line connecting Barcelona with Montpellier in France The tracks are underused with only two services per day For regional services there are additional border crossings in Portbou-Perpignan (Mediterranean coast) IrunHendaye (Atlantic coast) and Puigcerda (Pyrenees) but none of them is serviced frequently Another difficulty on these regional lines is that trains need to change between standard and Ibe-rian track gauge at the borderThe connection between Spain and Portugal is even worse a rail trip from Madrid to Lisbon (625 km) takes 10h50 and requires three changes as only regional lines operate across borders There are border crossings in Badajoz-Elvas Fregenada-Bar-ca de Alva and Vigo-Porto but they are under-used The only long-distance line to Portugal is a night train from HendayeIrun to Lisbon (currently sus-pended due to Covid-19) The TEN-T network plan foresees a high-speed connection between Madrid and Lisbon as part of the core network but the project is currently not being pursued by either the Portuguese or the Spanish government

16 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

member statesrsquo operational programmes for cohesion fundingrecovery funding the European Commission should suggest to member states that they include rail projects that are key tothe functioning of a European rail network

Q Promotes infrastructure interventions which are accompanied by transformative measures When accessing EU rail infrastructure funding member states should be required to present accompanying policy measures which ensure that the infrastructure is used efficiently

Other policy interventions for supporting European rail

Apart from the above mentioned priorities the EU and member states should address the following obstacles

Q International rail has no strong voice in the current system because member states and incumbent railway operators tend to focus on their own national markets There is also a lack of coordination of infrastructure managers across borders The EU should strengthen the European Rail Agency (ERA) as a traffic control and coordination authority for international rail transport The ERA should be entrusted with forecasting demand assessing the level of required services (destination frequency speed) and allocating capacities The ERA could identify routes that may be of interest to travellers but which are not yet fully exploited and could make this information available to train operators It could also determine which sections of the desired network services would be

Examples of bordercrossings between Spain France Belgium Germany and Poland that need urgent attention

Member States involved Border crossing Important for Required action

Germany mdash Poland Cottbus mdash Forst mdash  Legnica

connecting Berlin with southern Poland electrification of 138 km

France mdash Germany Colmar mdash Freiburg connecting regions build 1 km bridge

Spain mdash France Astigarraga mdash IrunthinspHendaye mdash Bayonne

connecting Bordeaux to northern Spain

upgrade cross-border section

Spain mdash France (Pau) Bedous mdash Canfranc (Zaragoza)

Reconnect central corridor in the Pyrenees

Refurbishment of 30 km railtrack on French side

17SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

commercially viable and where public service obligations (PSOs) would be needed in order to guarantee a service

Q Night train operators and new rail operators have an especially hard time finding trains that can operate in more than one country The second-hand market for interoperable rolling stock and night trains is limited ordering an entire new fleet is prohibitively expensive and no func-tioning leasing market is in place for this specific segment The Eu and member states should help to find new creative finance mechanisms for overcoming the lack of rolling stock and consider establishing a publicly managed rolling stock pool

Q Airlines pay no tax on kerosene receive 85 of allowances of the European Emissions Trading Scheme free of charge and pay no VAT on international tickets This creates an uneven playing field between aviation and rail The European Commission has announced it will review both the EU Energy Taxation Directive and the EU ETS Directive in 2021 It is crucial to use this opportunity to introduce a kerosene tax in-troduce full auctioning for aviation allowances in the EU ETS and create a stronger price for emission allowances

Q Track access charges are prohibitively high in some EU member states EU Regulation suggests that charges should cover only marginal costs but some member states ask for much higher mark ups for example on highly frequented routes or during rush hours This creates an unfair advantage for road transport which pays only infrastructure charges on approximately 3 of the Eu road network For freight rail some member states have reduced charges but not so for passenger rail EU member states should agree to reduce track access charges to direct cost levels This would increase the use of tracks and could bring higher in-come for infrastructure managers in return During the transition period alternative funding to cover losses of infrastructure managers could come from ETS auctioning revenues

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18 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

Why is this important

Rail can help the EU to achieve its climate targets

Rail is the cleanest mode of transport A flight from Paris to Berlin causes at least six times the CO2 emissions of a train journey Counting the also non-CO2 impacts of aviation the flight is responsible for 18 times the climate impact of a rail trip With further electrification and decarbonisation of power generation the carbon emissions of rail could be reduced to close to zero

Intra-European flights on distances less than 1000 km are estimated to cause 28 MtCO2 every year without counting the non-CO2 impacts Seventeen of the 20 most frequented air routes in Europe are for distances less than 700 km In theory almost all of these journeys could be shifted to rail

The better European cities are connected by rail the easier it is to move trans-port away from high-polluting transport modes such as aviation and cars The more attractive and easy-to-use rail services are the more likely it is that people will want to switch

Rail can be a driver for European recovery post-Covid-19

The rail sector employs more than 23 million people (directly and indirectly) and creates a gross value added of euro143 billion of which euro66 billion is created directly by the sector This is larger than the gross value added of air transport The Eu rail supply industry accounts for around 20 of the global market

Rail infrastructure investments usually need more time but add to mid-term stability and growth expectations in the construction sector Some rail in-frastructure modernisation projects could be realised rapidlymdashfor example track switches bypasses European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) The investments needed for the realisation of the Trans-European Transport (TEN-T) core network for example is estimated to create euro45 trillion cumulated GDP and 13 million job-years EU-wide

19SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

Rail connects people cities and countries

In contrast to aviation rail not only services highly frequented core routes but also has a network that reaches into remote regions This network was much more dense 50 years ago both within countries and in border regions While many connections are not in use anymore because of massive divestment from rail many could easily be reinstalled A network of fast long-distance connections combined with dense regional services could make Europeans feel connected to and part of the EU

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20

Annex Specific recommendations for Poland Germany France and Spain

What can Poland do to boost European rail services

1 Create fair conditions for infrastructure access

The current system of infrastructure access charges is extremely asymmetric and strongly favours road over rail transport Rail currently pays infrastructure access charges on 100 of the railway network (including layovers or the use of railway stations) while road (bus) operators pay charges only on 1 of Pol-ish roads and individual drivers pay only for selected sections of motorways representing around 02 of the entire network Infrastructure charges of road and rail should be aligned in all market segmentsmdashincluding international long-distance transport

The second problem is the high level of track access charges for rail operators As a first step track access charges in Poland should be reduced to the level of costs directly induced by the train journey This would reduce charges from the current 60 of total infrastructure maintenance costs to 30 These charges should go entirely to the Railway Fund and thus contribute to the development and construction of new railway lines (as is the case with roads) Maintenance costs should be covered through the general state budget ultimately the sys-tem of charges for transport infrastructure should be dependent on the level of external costs (pollution noise traffic safety etc)

4

21

2 Invest in interoperable rolling stock for international connections including night trains

The lack of interoperable rolling stock is a key obstacle for the launch of new international long-distance connections Due to the very limited number of in-ternational connections and small passenger flows it is not a priority for carrier investment As a result international rail operatorsmdashespecially night trainsmdashhave access only to old wagons of poor quality In addition international trains waste time at borders due to the lack of multi-system locomotives which could run on different voltage and safety systems In Poland an estimated 40 locomo-tives and approximately 350 wagons are needed to operate connections with other Eu countries (Germany Czech Republic Slovakia and Lithuania) To im-prove the quality and frequency of international connections Poland should launch an investment programme for interoperable rolling stock This could also help the country negotiate with the European union on the co-financing of rolling stock or even an Eu-financed rolling stock pool Currently the long-dis-tance segment is the only area of passenger railway in Poland not covered by any EU support programme for rolling stock

3 Elimination of barriers to entry for new railway carriers

One of the basic problems of the international transport offer is its malad-justment to modern market needs Trains run infrequently tickets are much more expensive than domestic services and there are no discounts available on international trains The reason is that the organisation of connections is left to the incumbent railway carriers from individual countries and inflexi-ble procedures for their cooperation (including archaic regulations on tariffs and ticket sales) The example of low-cost airlines shows that an effective instrument for changing this situation is opening the market to competition In the case of commercial services full deregulation of the market should be achieved Where financial support (PSO) is required to maintain traffic compet-itive tenders for carrier selection should be obligatory in accordance with the provisions of the Fourth Railway Package In the case of Poland it is essential to review and clarify the rules for market access The current regulation leaves room for misinterpretation and is commonly used to block the entry of new entrants to the market which may exert positive pressure on the quality scope and accessibility of services for passengers

22 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Germany do to boost European rail services

1 Reduce track access charges for passenger trains

According to Eu law track access charges should generally only reflect direct costs (wear and tear costs) but Germany for instance makes use of an ex-emption and charges full costs for passenger trains (ie including infrastructure maintenance costs) The German track access charges are as a consequence five times as high as the mere direct costs would be (CERRE 2018) This results in very high access charges for train operators accounting for around a third of total operation costs The average costs per kilometre for long-distance trains rose by 18 between 2013 and 2018 For freight rail Germany has already decided to halve its track access charges The same approach to passenger rail could be a first step in incentivising more international services and to make rail more competitive with other transport modes The lost income for infra-structure managers would need to come from Germanyrsquos general budget

2 Establish a competent national authority for long-distance rail

Germany is the only Eu member state without a national contracting authority for rail transport When Germany reformed its rail system in the 1990s it es-tablished in each of the federal states (Bundeslaumlnder) at least one contract-ing authority responsible for organising and ordering regional rail passenger services and for determining public service obligations There are now 27 re-gional contracting authorities but no such authority at federal level Article 87e(4) of the German constitution obliges the federal government to guarantee non-regional services and provides the legal basis for establishing a national contracting authority by law Yet after more than two decades Germany has still not introduced such a law meaning that all long-distancetrains need to run solely on a commercial basis

This has led to gaps in the national network of long-distance trains and raises the question of how Germany can implement its so-called lsquoDeutschlandtaktrsquo

23ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

an integrated timetable for 2030 which includes routes not commercially via-ble It also makes it more difficult to run international trains through Germany Operating international trains is usually more costly because of higher coor-dination and administration costs and the need to buy or lease interoperable rolling stock In contrast to many other Eu member states Germany provides no support for long-distance trains in the form of public service obligations (PSOs) and also seems to object toother governments covering the German part of the route with PSOs as a recent feasibility study on a StockholmmdashBrus-sels night train revealed

3 Electrify border crossings to Poland and Czech Republic

Most international long-distance trains today run on electricity which is not only cleaner but also faster Only 61 of Germanyrsquos railway network is elec-trified and only 27 of its 57 border crossings into neighbouring countries are electrified Most non-electrified border crossings are on the eastern borders 13 into the Czech Republic and eight into Poland The lack of electrification usually means that locomotives need to be changed at the border adding to travel times and that many faster trains cannot run on those sections To better connect with the east Germany should urgently electrify the following sections

Q CottbusmdashForstmdashLegnica 138 km electrification would speed up services from Berlin to Wroclaw and krakow

Q DresdenmdashGoumlrlitzmdashZgorzelec 95 km electrification would improve train connections between Dresden and Wrocław

Q RegensburgmdashFurth im Wald 131 km electrification would speed up ser-vices from Munich to Prague to less than four hours

Q NuumlrnbergmdashSchirndingmdashCheb 140 km electrification would reduce travel time between Nuremberg and Prague to less than four hours

copy Natalya Vilman dreamstimecom

24 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can France do to boost European rail services

1 Initiate a national strategy for a modal shift from air to rail

Massive modal shift is no longer an option but a necessity if France is to reach its targets of CO2 emissions Yet there is no long-term plan to reduce the number of flights taken for European travel Such a strategy is much needed as it would allow for long-term planning better coordination with the ERA and better coordination between long-distance and local trains

With an extensive network of railways lines already in place international con-nections do not require any major infrastructure works and couldbe created very quickly What is lacking is an integrated strategy to promote train over air for domestic and European travel France should set clear objectives in modal shift by 2030 and 2050 in accordance with national low carbon strategy (SNBC)

As long- and medium-distance train connections (both day and night ) can be an important asset to reach French climate targets France should create further incentives to boost this modal shift introducing VAT on European flights and reducing VAT on train travel Airport expansion projects in France should also be halted as they undermine efforts towards low emission mobility

2 Ease emergence of new players for long-distance connections

As the European rail market opens private and lsquohistoricrsquo incumbents will have the opportunity to operate new European connections This opening of the Eu-ropean train market will be an opportunity for new train companies to operate these trans-European connections To encourage lsquonewcomersrsquo France should guarantee that the services of these private companies will be able to set up their businesses and operate without obstacles set track access charges to its direct costs level and guarantee that newcomers will have access to public infrastructure and tracks

25ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

The opening of the market could also be an opportunity for incumbents such as SNCF As has been done with Thalys or Eurostar SNCF should initiate a part-nership with other national andor private companies to operate one or several of the European corridors that will be designed

It is quite possible to lsquostart smallrsquo operating only on the sections where infra-structure and rolling stock are compatible (ParismdashBerlin for example) and gradually extend the lines to reach full potential such as ParismdashWarsaw

3 Invest in night train rolling stock

Night trains can be a positive alternative to intra-Eu-ropean flights They can serve both domestic and international destinations However night trains in France have been on a downslide for several years The French government has recently announced that two new national train lines will be reopened This trend should be continued as the number of night trains gradually increases and night train lines extended to international destinations

For the night train renaissance France should in-vest euro150 million each year in rolling stock as the current stock is aging and far too limited This in-vestment will incentivise industries to produce new high-quality wagons designed for the night trains

At night some of the French track capacity is re-served for maintenance work and cannot be usedThis challenge can be overcome by starting with a small number of routes providing alternative routes when needed andor subsidising SNCF Reacute-seau so that maintenance work during the night can be lsquoun-optimisedrsquo that is take place over a longer period but without stopping traffic at night copy

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26 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Spain do to boost European rail services

1 Refurbish upgrade and finalise cross-border connections between Spain Portugal and France

Cross-border connections between Spain and its neighbouring countries need an urgent upgrade to allow smooth fast and convenient passenger trips be-tween major southern European cities In the Basque country the rail lines between Hendaye and Irun should be quickly refurbished to avoid unneces-sary stop-overs and guarantee the integration of French high-speed network (ParismdashBordeauxmdashHendaye) with the Spanish high-speed line in construction between DonostiaBilbao and Vittoria (known as Basque Y) and then towards Madrid and other Spanish cities

In Central Pyrenees the historical line between Pau (Nouvelle Aquitaine) and Zaragoza (Aragon) via the monumental Canfranc International station should be relaunched by building the missing 30 km between Bedous (France) and Canfranc (Spain) This final work will increase freight and passenger connectiv-ity improve cross-border security and boost the economy of isolated regions highly dependent on tourism agriculture and industry

On the Atlantic side the cities of Lisbon and Madrid as well as Santiago de Com-postela (Galicia) and Porto need to be integrated into a high-performance network based on the upgrade of outdated rail tracks This connection would ensure the better cohesion and connection of geographically remote and pe-ripheral cities and regions with the rest of the European capitals

2 Relaunch night train services and long-distance conventional lines

Most of the night time and conventional trains between major southern Euro-pean cities (such as MadridmdashParis BarcelonamdashParis MadridmdashBarcelona Ma-dridmdashLisbon) have been abandoned in the last decade due to aggressive and unfair competition from low-cost airlines and long-distance buses However the climate crisis is pushing citizens towards low-carbon transport such as rail

27ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

Spanish citizens deserve affordable night trains and renovated long-distance trains that allow them to save time carbon and money avoiding expensive night hotels at origin and destination Relaunching cross-regional train lines is also a way to support safe inclusive and sustainable tourism in Mediterranean countries dramatically affected by the Covid crisis and related lockdowns

3 Increase the use of the network by opening the market and levelling the playing field

Spain has the longest high-speed network in Europe (2675 km) but it is the least used with only 13 billion passenger-kilometres in 2018 As a comparison France transported 49 billion passenger-km on a high-speed network of almost equal length (2548 km) When looking at passenger and freight rail together use intensity of the Spanish rail network (34 trains per day per route km) is also very low compared to the rest of Europe (146 in the Netherlands 96 in the UK 78 in Germany 43 in France)

As a large part of the high-speed infrastructure has been financed by the Eu the poor performance of rail in Spain is clearly an inefficient use of public money that should be solved by appropriate regulation and incentives The new law for sustainable mobility in the making is a unique opportunity to reverse those negative trends and fix historical pitfalls The opening of the network to new rail operators planned in 2021 should also contribute to increasing the number of passengers without building any new infrastructure Finally the rules for transport operators should be fair between air road and trains by integrating the environmental and social externalities and incentivising cleaner alternatives

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28

References

BMVI (2020) Trans-Europe Express 20 httpswwwbmvideSharedDocsENDocumentsKinnovative-rail-transport-overnight-21-09-2020pdf__blob=publicationFile (accessed 26 November 2020)

CERRE (2018) Track Access ChargesmdashCase Study Germany httpscerreorgsitescerrefiles180509_CERRE_TrackAccessCharges_CaseStudy_Germa-ny_Finalpdf (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2018) Comprehensive analysis of the existing cross-bor-der rail transport connections and missing links on the internal EU borders httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-detail-publicatione68ec381-62f7-11e8-ab9c-01aa75ed71a1language-en (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2019) Remaining Challenges for EU-wide integrated ticketing and payment services httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-de-tail-publicationaf05b3eb-df43-11e9-9c4e-01aa75ed71a1 (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Court of Auditors (2018) A European high-speed rail network not a reality but an ineffective patchwork ECA Special Report httpswwwecaeuropaeuenPagesDocItemaspxdid=46398 (accessed 26 Novem-ber 2020)

Eurostat (2020) Air passenger transport between the main airports (data sets avia_par_fr avia_par_pl avia_par_de avia_par_es avia_par_b) httpseceuropaeueurostatwebmainhome (accessed 26 November 2020)

Independent Regulatorrsquos Group (IRG) (2020) 8th IRG-Rail Market Monitoring Report httpsirg-raileuirgdocumentsmarket-monitoring (accessed 26 November 2020)

International Railway Journal (2020) Spain urged to rebalance high-speed and suburban rail development 7 August 2020 httpswwwrailjournalcompassengerhigh-speedspain-urged-to-rebalance-high-speed-and-subur-ban-rail-investment (accessed 26 November 2020)

Page 6: Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe...Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe How the 2021 European Year of Rail can˜support the˜European Green Deal and a

6

A European network launch direct international services on European arteries

International rail services between major European cities offer a large untapped potential Most rail services stop at the border or end just on the other side of the border Travellers often need to change trains several times to get from one capital to the othermdashwhich means additional stress and waiting time for the traveller The few direct services often stop too many times along the way and wait too often at major traffic nodes for track capacity Direct trains between all European major cities of neighbouring countries should be an abso-lute minimum but also other metropolitan areas should be connected with direct and frequent services Furthermore long-distance trains should connect well with regional rail services to establish a dense and attractive network

France and Spain have developed high-speed services but abandoned most regional lines

Both France and Spain have invested heavily in high-speed lines France has built 2800 kilometres (km) of high-speed lines since the 1980s which makes it one of the densest high-speed networks in Europe Unfortu-nately the cost of building and maintaining these lines has taken its toll on regional and local lines Between 1998 and 2018 131 of the total length of the French network was closed Local and re-gional infrastructure is aging and in urgent need of renewal For this reason the French government along with SNCF has recently shifted its priorities

to maintaining local lines and postponing several high-speed projectsIn Spain three out of four euros allocated in 2018 to rail infrastructure went into high-speed infra-structure Spain now has the longest high-speed network in Europe (around 3000 km) but it is the least used with only 13 billion passenger-kilometres in 2018 As a comparison France transported 49 bil-lion passenger-kilometres on a high-speed network of almost equal length (IRG 2020) In contrast only a minor share of the Spanish rail budget was invest-ed in suburban rail

1PRIORITY

7

Connecting long-distance trains to regional rail services does not always require new high-speed infrastructure Much of the infrastructure is already there especially in western Europe but is not utilised to its full potential A Euro-pean Commission report found that of 202 operational cross-border rail links only 57 were fully exploited in 2017 (European Commission 2018) In many cases more efficient use of existing high-speed or even conven-tional infrastructure and better coordination of timetables would be sufficient A well-coordinated timetable could also integrate regional and long-distance trains and improve connectivity in Europe

Currently the main obstacles to international services are

Q National perspective incumbent operators focus on their national market (especially on lucrative main routes) and often lack an international vision and experience (eg market potential administrative) Trains stop at lsquoat every haystackrsquo which might make sense from a national perspective but leads to additional travel times for international services

Q Administrative hurdles make international services less attractive for operators For example they need to apply for track capacity with various

WarsawmdashVilnius

WarsawmdashPrague

BerlinmdashCopenhagen

BerlinmdashBrussels

BerlinmdashParis

ParismdashMadrid

MadridmdashLisbon

Neighbours but no direct train betweenhellip

8 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

infrastructure managers drivers are required to speak several languages and rolling stock needs to be designed and licensed for different national electricity signalling and safety systems

What is needed is a European spirit in planning and management of rail services and start-up support for new international services In the 1960s and 70s a network of direct trans-continental services connected Europe across bordersmdashthe Trans-Eu-rope Express (TEE) This joint endeavour of French German Swiss Dutch Belgian Luxembourg and Italian railways only offered first-class services and only connected a number of countries in western and central Europe however the idea might serve as a starting point TEE trains only stopped at major cities and were often scheduled to allow travellers to do a roundtrip in a single day At its height in the

late 1970s the TEE served 31 routes The network also gave impetus to the de-velopment of interoperable trains that could run on different voltage systems

A new East-West European line WarsawmdashBerlinmdashBrusselsmdashParisA direct service between Warsaw and Paris could be the first test case for new international lines There are already direct services on the following sections WarsawmdashBerlin (6h) BerlinmdashCologne ColognemdashBrussels BrusselsmdashParis (1h30)The TEE20 study assumes that WarsawmdashParis journey can currently be done in 13h15 with in-frastructure improvements travel time could be reduced to 12h45 (BMVI 2020) There is already rolling stock (TGV) available that is certified in Ger-many Belgium and France While the certification process in Poland is ongoing the trial service could start with BerlinmdashParisThe route would have a significant potential to shift flights to rail as some sections are heavily frequent-ed flight routes There are more than five million passengers every year who fly the total distance WarsawmdashParis or smaller sections of it For in-stance between Cologne and Paris an average of more than 2500 people fly every day and between Berlin and Paris 3000 (in 2019 Eurostat 2020)

Germany is a key player for new European rail servicesDue to its central location in the EU Germany is crucially important for a European rail network Yet running international services through Germany is difficult as

Q Germany is one of the few EU member states that does not place public service obligations onlong-distance rail services

Q the German infrastructure manager DB Netz charges one of the highest mark-ups on track access charges in the EU Many other EU mem-ber states charge only direct costs for infra-structure use and no additional mark-ups

Q responsibility for train services is devolved to re-gional government cross-border coordination with Germany is more difficult than with other EU member states

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9A EuROPEAN NET WORk

A few decades ago countries in Europe were still connected via many night train routes but most of these have been discontinued These night trains were important connections particularly for longer distances Austrian rail operator OumlBB has begun to revive some of the routes

In September 2020 the German government proposed reviving the TEE idea with eight core international routes together with a network of European night trains (BMVI 2020) The idea of a TEE20 is a good start to lsquoEuropeanisingrsquo train services and overcoming some of the major hur-dles The proposed network could then be ex-panded to reach further into SpainPortugal and south and eastern Europe

How can the EU launch new international rail ser-vices in the short term

Q Get started Agree on one or two corridors to start with (eg WarsawmdashBerlinmdashBrusselsmdashParis or AmsterdammdashParismdashBarcelona)

Q Corridor coordination Task the European Railway Agency (ERA) with coordinating rail ser-vices on these corridors to create a one-stop shop for train operators The agency could provide information on which rolling stock is required and the frequency and speed of the services It could facilitate coordination between infrastructure managers to ensure that services get the required track slots for fast and smooth journeys

Q Start-up support Determine those sections of the corridor that the service can run on a commercial basis and those where it needs subsidies (at least to get started) start-up support should be tied to the condi-tion that low-price tickets are available to make the service accessible to price-sensitive passengers

Q Vision Agree on a comprehensive network of European day and night trains with trains crossing external EU borders into the neighbourhood (especially to the uk Western Balkans Turkey ukraine Belarus and Russia)

A new NorthmdashSouth European line AmsterdammdashBarcelonaAnother test case could be a direct service between Amsterdam and Barcelona Currently there are trains making this journey in three segments Am-sterdammdashBrussels (2h30) BrusselsmdashLyon (3h45) and LyonmdashBarcelona (5h)mdasha total of 11 hours 15 minutes A direct train could connect Amsterdam and Barcelona in 10h15 Rolling stock is available for this route the Siemens Velaro train is certified in Netherlands Belgium France and Spain The route would have significant potential to shift travel from air to rail For example there are on average 6500 people flying from Paris to Barce-lona each day In 2019 almost 85 million people took a flight on the AmsterdammdashBarcelona route or smaller sections of it (Eurostat 2020)

WarsawBerlinHanover

Cologne

Frankfurt

KarlsruheFreiburg

Basel

Lyon

Milan

Bologna

Rome

Montpellier

PerpignanBarcelona

Mulhouse

Amsterdam

Short-term implementation of the TEE20

Sour

ce B

MVI

(202

0)

10

Easy booking Make rail data sharing mandatory

Booking international flights is very easy but buying international rail tickets is the opposite Passengers cannot easily find and compare all available con-nections and prices and bear the risk of delays on the way That needs to change travelling by rail needs to become at least as easy as travelling by plane Consumers should be able to book rail tickets for any connection in the Eu via one-stop shops In the best case this should integrate with other sustainable modes for the first and last miles of the passengerrsquos journey such asbuses trams shared bikes etc

It is not possible to book a train ticket FrankfurtmdashBarcelona onlineIf you try to buy a train ticket from Frankfurt to Barcelona this is what you find

Q Deutsche Bahn shows two connections (fastest is 13h04) that reach Barce-lona within the same day but no tickets are sold

Q SNCF shows no connections Q RENFE shows no connections and this information is available only in Spanish Q Trainline offers tickets for three connections which are different from the

Deutsche Bahn connections and require at least 25 hours of travelling Q Omio shows no connection

The only possible ways to book the trip from Frankfurt to Barcelona are to buy tickets for segments of the journey from the different operatorsrsquo websites con-tact an offline travel agent or queue up at one of the few remaining Deutsche Bahn ticket sale desksAs a comparison Google Flights search shows for the same day approximately 60 connections even during the Covid-19 pandemic

2PRIORITY

11

The Eu has trusted the rail sector to find its own solution but that sector has delayed progress for years Technical solu-tions for integrating information from different train providers are available Independent online ticket vendors like Trainline Omio etc try to assemble tickets from different operators but their websites do not yet show all available rail connections and ticket offers This is because rail operators are reluctant to share all the necessary data with other operators or with independent ticket vendors

The EU needs to require rail operators to share all nec-essary data for easy booking of international rail trips European law currently obliges transport operators to share only some basic data such as static travel and traffic data (19262017 Delegated Regulation of the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) Directive) The regulation does not cover fare data and also leaves it open to member states to require dynamic travel and traffic data (eg information on platform numbers and changes accurate seat plans real-time delays and cancellations predicted arrival time) These data are critical for a seamless journey and for passengers to be able to find alternative connections in case of disruptions (European Commission 2019)

Finland shows the way for multimodal ticketingFinland is the European frontrunner when it comes to multimodal ticketing The 2018 Transport Act obliges all mo-bility service providers to grant access to essential data sales interfaces and reservation interfaces via an Applica-tion Programming Interface (API) The law thus covers not only rail but also public road services Mobility service providers are obliged to cooperate and to enter into agreements based on criteria set out in the Transport Act The Finnish Transport Agency is responsible for monitoring the supply and demand of mobility services and produces statistics from the data ob-tained (European Commission 2019)

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12 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

Some member states move beyond that regulation while others implement only the absolute minimum resulting in legal fragmentation across the EU In Germany for instance Deutsche Bahn (DB) data on timetables and planned disruptions is open to ticket vendors but not data on real-time platforms real-time delays and cancellations or next-day information on delays and cancellation (which is required for claiming compensation)

The EU needs to establish a comprehensive multimodal legal framework for booking ticketing and payment services In its 2021 Work Programme the European Commission announced it would revise the ITS Directive and propose a multimodal ticketing initiative This initiative needs to fulfil the fol-lowing criteria

Q The framework will make access to static and dynamic data manda-tory (including routes stops timetables prices and the availability and accessibility of services)

Q Rail operators will be required to share data via an open Application Programming Interface (API) which must be in machine readable for-mat Many operators have so far failed to build interfaces into their own booking systems

Q The framework should allow ticket vendors to assemble their own discount and promotion packages to compete in an open ticketing market

The EU needs to establish rules to guaran-tee that international rail passengers arrive at their final destination and can hop on the next train in case of missed train connections Rail pas-sengers often need to buy individual tickets from different rail operators for a multi-leg journeymdashand under current rules passengers bear the risk if a connection is missed Rail operators are cur-rently not obliged to sell so-called lsquothrough ticketsrsquo that is one ticket contract for multi-leg journey with a guarantee to arrive at the final destination Also independent ticket vendors that assemble tickets from various operators do not offer such an lsquoarrival guaranteersquo As there are only a few direct interna-tional train connections between major European cities this is a concern for passengers

The BerlinmdashBrussels roulettemdash no lsquohop on the next trainrsquoWhen travelling by train from Berlin to Brussels passengers need to change trains in Cologne Fre-quently the ICE train (operated by DB) from Berlin to Cologne is delayed and travellers miss their con-nection From Cologne to Brussels there is only one ICE train every two hours but a Thalys train several times a day in the lsquointerim slotsrsquo Yet the DB traveller is not allowed to take the Thalys trains to Brussels earlier than the next ICE train because there is no lsquohop on the next trainrsquo agreement between Thalys and DB meaning travellers oftenneed 08h49 in-stead of 06h49 for the trip

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13EASY BOOkING

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14

Smart spending Use EU money to improve rail infrastructure capacity and connectivity

EU funding (cohesion funding Connecting Europe Facility Recovery and Resil-ience Facility) makes up an important share of overall transport infrastructure funding especially in the new member states Yet in the past Eu transport funding has not always been used wisely Too much funding went into road and airports and too little into rail This is especially the case for EU cohesion fund-ing around 50 of transport cohesion funding goes into road and only 25 into rail projects Funding decisions are based on plans prepared by the

respective member state and negotiated between member states and the European Commission

European Investment Bank (EIB) transport lending is still supporting unsustainable infrastructure such as airports and new motorway projects Transport is the single largest sector of EIB activity accounting for about 1 in every 4 euros invested by the bank The bank is however in the process of revising both its climate (2020) and transport policies (2021)

Too much money also goes into mega-projects with exploding costs and long delays The Eu-ropean Court of Auditors (2018) cautioned that projects were often chosen based on political de-cisions and not on thorough cost-benefit analyses

3

Only one out of seven border crossings between Germany and Poland is electrifiedThere were once 24 rail links between Germany and Poland of which only seven remain in operation Yet only the border crossing at Frankfurt (Oder) is electrified The trains from Berlin to Warsaw or to Gdansk operate on this line The remaining six border crossings are not yet electrified meaning that trains need to run on diesel The CottbusmdashLegnica link is particularly relevant to connect Berlin to densely populated Southern Poland (Wroclaw Silesia Krakow) To electrify this 138 km link would cost approximately euro100 million but could reduce travel time between Berlin and Wroclaw from currently 45 hours to only 3 hours because Eurocity trains could take a more direct route (currently going through Frankfurt (Oder)) For comparison before the 2nd World War travel time was only 25 hours

PRIORITY

15

The evaluated high-speed projects took 16 years on average cost on average euro25 million per track km but often do not deliver on expectations average speeds rarely reach 200 kmh and only few lines transported more than nine million passengers per year (the benchmark for a successful high-speed line) In contrast small-scale interventions with greater European potential are of-ten not implemented This can be electrification constructing a second track or bypasses to increase capacity and speed or closing smaller missing links on the border

The European Court of Auditors also noted a lack of coordination of cross-border infrastructure projects Member states take a national perspec-tive and do not prioritise closing cross-border gaps This means that infrastructure might have been completed on one side of the border but delayed by years on the other side

The EU should ensure that EU funding

Q Supports modal shift towards rail In the negotiations of the Operational Programmes for Cohesion funding the European Commis-sion should ensure that more budget goes to rail than to road and no new roads are financedin the old member states as they al-ready have a sufficiently dense road network The European Commission should also ask member states to present modal shift tar-gets if they want to access funds for trans-port under the Recovery and Resilience Facility The EIB should in the upcoming review of its Transport Strategy decide to stop funding any airport infrastructure or road network expansion and instead increase funding for electric cross-border rail projects and rolling stock

Q Prioritises rail projects essential for intra-European rail services Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funding should only go into projects that are key to cross-border connectivity (eg for key corridors) and should focus more on low-hanging fruits than on new mega-projects Such inter-ventions should be based on sound cost-benefit analysis When evaluating

Spain has only one international long-distance rail lineSpain has invested massively into high-speed lines over the last decades with euro14 billion (25 of total investment) coming from Eu funds (Inter-national Railway Journal 2020) Yet there is only one international high-speed rail line connecting Barcelona with Montpellier in France The tracks are underused with only two services per day For regional services there are additional border crossings in Portbou-Perpignan (Mediterranean coast) IrunHendaye (Atlantic coast) and Puigcerda (Pyrenees) but none of them is serviced frequently Another difficulty on these regional lines is that trains need to change between standard and Ibe-rian track gauge at the borderThe connection between Spain and Portugal is even worse a rail trip from Madrid to Lisbon (625 km) takes 10h50 and requires three changes as only regional lines operate across borders There are border crossings in Badajoz-Elvas Fregenada-Bar-ca de Alva and Vigo-Porto but they are under-used The only long-distance line to Portugal is a night train from HendayeIrun to Lisbon (currently sus-pended due to Covid-19) The TEN-T network plan foresees a high-speed connection between Madrid and Lisbon as part of the core network but the project is currently not being pursued by either the Portuguese or the Spanish government

16 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

member statesrsquo operational programmes for cohesion fundingrecovery funding the European Commission should suggest to member states that they include rail projects that are key tothe functioning of a European rail network

Q Promotes infrastructure interventions which are accompanied by transformative measures When accessing EU rail infrastructure funding member states should be required to present accompanying policy measures which ensure that the infrastructure is used efficiently

Other policy interventions for supporting European rail

Apart from the above mentioned priorities the EU and member states should address the following obstacles

Q International rail has no strong voice in the current system because member states and incumbent railway operators tend to focus on their own national markets There is also a lack of coordination of infrastructure managers across borders The EU should strengthen the European Rail Agency (ERA) as a traffic control and coordination authority for international rail transport The ERA should be entrusted with forecasting demand assessing the level of required services (destination frequency speed) and allocating capacities The ERA could identify routes that may be of interest to travellers but which are not yet fully exploited and could make this information available to train operators It could also determine which sections of the desired network services would be

Examples of bordercrossings between Spain France Belgium Germany and Poland that need urgent attention

Member States involved Border crossing Important for Required action

Germany mdash Poland Cottbus mdash Forst mdash  Legnica

connecting Berlin with southern Poland electrification of 138 km

France mdash Germany Colmar mdash Freiburg connecting regions build 1 km bridge

Spain mdash France Astigarraga mdash IrunthinspHendaye mdash Bayonne

connecting Bordeaux to northern Spain

upgrade cross-border section

Spain mdash France (Pau) Bedous mdash Canfranc (Zaragoza)

Reconnect central corridor in the Pyrenees

Refurbishment of 30 km railtrack on French side

17SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

commercially viable and where public service obligations (PSOs) would be needed in order to guarantee a service

Q Night train operators and new rail operators have an especially hard time finding trains that can operate in more than one country The second-hand market for interoperable rolling stock and night trains is limited ordering an entire new fleet is prohibitively expensive and no func-tioning leasing market is in place for this specific segment The Eu and member states should help to find new creative finance mechanisms for overcoming the lack of rolling stock and consider establishing a publicly managed rolling stock pool

Q Airlines pay no tax on kerosene receive 85 of allowances of the European Emissions Trading Scheme free of charge and pay no VAT on international tickets This creates an uneven playing field between aviation and rail The European Commission has announced it will review both the EU Energy Taxation Directive and the EU ETS Directive in 2021 It is crucial to use this opportunity to introduce a kerosene tax in-troduce full auctioning for aviation allowances in the EU ETS and create a stronger price for emission allowances

Q Track access charges are prohibitively high in some EU member states EU Regulation suggests that charges should cover only marginal costs but some member states ask for much higher mark ups for example on highly frequented routes or during rush hours This creates an unfair advantage for road transport which pays only infrastructure charges on approximately 3 of the Eu road network For freight rail some member states have reduced charges but not so for passenger rail EU member states should agree to reduce track access charges to direct cost levels This would increase the use of tracks and could bring higher in-come for infrastructure managers in return During the transition period alternative funding to cover losses of infrastructure managers could come from ETS auctioning revenues

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18 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

Why is this important

Rail can help the EU to achieve its climate targets

Rail is the cleanest mode of transport A flight from Paris to Berlin causes at least six times the CO2 emissions of a train journey Counting the also non-CO2 impacts of aviation the flight is responsible for 18 times the climate impact of a rail trip With further electrification and decarbonisation of power generation the carbon emissions of rail could be reduced to close to zero

Intra-European flights on distances less than 1000 km are estimated to cause 28 MtCO2 every year without counting the non-CO2 impacts Seventeen of the 20 most frequented air routes in Europe are for distances less than 700 km In theory almost all of these journeys could be shifted to rail

The better European cities are connected by rail the easier it is to move trans-port away from high-polluting transport modes such as aviation and cars The more attractive and easy-to-use rail services are the more likely it is that people will want to switch

Rail can be a driver for European recovery post-Covid-19

The rail sector employs more than 23 million people (directly and indirectly) and creates a gross value added of euro143 billion of which euro66 billion is created directly by the sector This is larger than the gross value added of air transport The Eu rail supply industry accounts for around 20 of the global market

Rail infrastructure investments usually need more time but add to mid-term stability and growth expectations in the construction sector Some rail in-frastructure modernisation projects could be realised rapidlymdashfor example track switches bypasses European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) The investments needed for the realisation of the Trans-European Transport (TEN-T) core network for example is estimated to create euro45 trillion cumulated GDP and 13 million job-years EU-wide

19SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

Rail connects people cities and countries

In contrast to aviation rail not only services highly frequented core routes but also has a network that reaches into remote regions This network was much more dense 50 years ago both within countries and in border regions While many connections are not in use anymore because of massive divestment from rail many could easily be reinstalled A network of fast long-distance connections combined with dense regional services could make Europeans feel connected to and part of the EU

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20

Annex Specific recommendations for Poland Germany France and Spain

What can Poland do to boost European rail services

1 Create fair conditions for infrastructure access

The current system of infrastructure access charges is extremely asymmetric and strongly favours road over rail transport Rail currently pays infrastructure access charges on 100 of the railway network (including layovers or the use of railway stations) while road (bus) operators pay charges only on 1 of Pol-ish roads and individual drivers pay only for selected sections of motorways representing around 02 of the entire network Infrastructure charges of road and rail should be aligned in all market segmentsmdashincluding international long-distance transport

The second problem is the high level of track access charges for rail operators As a first step track access charges in Poland should be reduced to the level of costs directly induced by the train journey This would reduce charges from the current 60 of total infrastructure maintenance costs to 30 These charges should go entirely to the Railway Fund and thus contribute to the development and construction of new railway lines (as is the case with roads) Maintenance costs should be covered through the general state budget ultimately the sys-tem of charges for transport infrastructure should be dependent on the level of external costs (pollution noise traffic safety etc)

4

21

2 Invest in interoperable rolling stock for international connections including night trains

The lack of interoperable rolling stock is a key obstacle for the launch of new international long-distance connections Due to the very limited number of in-ternational connections and small passenger flows it is not a priority for carrier investment As a result international rail operatorsmdashespecially night trainsmdashhave access only to old wagons of poor quality In addition international trains waste time at borders due to the lack of multi-system locomotives which could run on different voltage and safety systems In Poland an estimated 40 locomo-tives and approximately 350 wagons are needed to operate connections with other Eu countries (Germany Czech Republic Slovakia and Lithuania) To im-prove the quality and frequency of international connections Poland should launch an investment programme for interoperable rolling stock This could also help the country negotiate with the European union on the co-financing of rolling stock or even an Eu-financed rolling stock pool Currently the long-dis-tance segment is the only area of passenger railway in Poland not covered by any EU support programme for rolling stock

3 Elimination of barriers to entry for new railway carriers

One of the basic problems of the international transport offer is its malad-justment to modern market needs Trains run infrequently tickets are much more expensive than domestic services and there are no discounts available on international trains The reason is that the organisation of connections is left to the incumbent railway carriers from individual countries and inflexi-ble procedures for their cooperation (including archaic regulations on tariffs and ticket sales) The example of low-cost airlines shows that an effective instrument for changing this situation is opening the market to competition In the case of commercial services full deregulation of the market should be achieved Where financial support (PSO) is required to maintain traffic compet-itive tenders for carrier selection should be obligatory in accordance with the provisions of the Fourth Railway Package In the case of Poland it is essential to review and clarify the rules for market access The current regulation leaves room for misinterpretation and is commonly used to block the entry of new entrants to the market which may exert positive pressure on the quality scope and accessibility of services for passengers

22 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Germany do to boost European rail services

1 Reduce track access charges for passenger trains

According to Eu law track access charges should generally only reflect direct costs (wear and tear costs) but Germany for instance makes use of an ex-emption and charges full costs for passenger trains (ie including infrastructure maintenance costs) The German track access charges are as a consequence five times as high as the mere direct costs would be (CERRE 2018) This results in very high access charges for train operators accounting for around a third of total operation costs The average costs per kilometre for long-distance trains rose by 18 between 2013 and 2018 For freight rail Germany has already decided to halve its track access charges The same approach to passenger rail could be a first step in incentivising more international services and to make rail more competitive with other transport modes The lost income for infra-structure managers would need to come from Germanyrsquos general budget

2 Establish a competent national authority for long-distance rail

Germany is the only Eu member state without a national contracting authority for rail transport When Germany reformed its rail system in the 1990s it es-tablished in each of the federal states (Bundeslaumlnder) at least one contract-ing authority responsible for organising and ordering regional rail passenger services and for determining public service obligations There are now 27 re-gional contracting authorities but no such authority at federal level Article 87e(4) of the German constitution obliges the federal government to guarantee non-regional services and provides the legal basis for establishing a national contracting authority by law Yet after more than two decades Germany has still not introduced such a law meaning that all long-distancetrains need to run solely on a commercial basis

This has led to gaps in the national network of long-distance trains and raises the question of how Germany can implement its so-called lsquoDeutschlandtaktrsquo

23ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

an integrated timetable for 2030 which includes routes not commercially via-ble It also makes it more difficult to run international trains through Germany Operating international trains is usually more costly because of higher coor-dination and administration costs and the need to buy or lease interoperable rolling stock In contrast to many other Eu member states Germany provides no support for long-distance trains in the form of public service obligations (PSOs) and also seems to object toother governments covering the German part of the route with PSOs as a recent feasibility study on a StockholmmdashBrus-sels night train revealed

3 Electrify border crossings to Poland and Czech Republic

Most international long-distance trains today run on electricity which is not only cleaner but also faster Only 61 of Germanyrsquos railway network is elec-trified and only 27 of its 57 border crossings into neighbouring countries are electrified Most non-electrified border crossings are on the eastern borders 13 into the Czech Republic and eight into Poland The lack of electrification usually means that locomotives need to be changed at the border adding to travel times and that many faster trains cannot run on those sections To better connect with the east Germany should urgently electrify the following sections

Q CottbusmdashForstmdashLegnica 138 km electrification would speed up services from Berlin to Wroclaw and krakow

Q DresdenmdashGoumlrlitzmdashZgorzelec 95 km electrification would improve train connections between Dresden and Wrocław

Q RegensburgmdashFurth im Wald 131 km electrification would speed up ser-vices from Munich to Prague to less than four hours

Q NuumlrnbergmdashSchirndingmdashCheb 140 km electrification would reduce travel time between Nuremberg and Prague to less than four hours

copy Natalya Vilman dreamstimecom

24 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can France do to boost European rail services

1 Initiate a national strategy for a modal shift from air to rail

Massive modal shift is no longer an option but a necessity if France is to reach its targets of CO2 emissions Yet there is no long-term plan to reduce the number of flights taken for European travel Such a strategy is much needed as it would allow for long-term planning better coordination with the ERA and better coordination between long-distance and local trains

With an extensive network of railways lines already in place international con-nections do not require any major infrastructure works and couldbe created very quickly What is lacking is an integrated strategy to promote train over air for domestic and European travel France should set clear objectives in modal shift by 2030 and 2050 in accordance with national low carbon strategy (SNBC)

As long- and medium-distance train connections (both day and night ) can be an important asset to reach French climate targets France should create further incentives to boost this modal shift introducing VAT on European flights and reducing VAT on train travel Airport expansion projects in France should also be halted as they undermine efforts towards low emission mobility

2 Ease emergence of new players for long-distance connections

As the European rail market opens private and lsquohistoricrsquo incumbents will have the opportunity to operate new European connections This opening of the Eu-ropean train market will be an opportunity for new train companies to operate these trans-European connections To encourage lsquonewcomersrsquo France should guarantee that the services of these private companies will be able to set up their businesses and operate without obstacles set track access charges to its direct costs level and guarantee that newcomers will have access to public infrastructure and tracks

25ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

The opening of the market could also be an opportunity for incumbents such as SNCF As has been done with Thalys or Eurostar SNCF should initiate a part-nership with other national andor private companies to operate one or several of the European corridors that will be designed

It is quite possible to lsquostart smallrsquo operating only on the sections where infra-structure and rolling stock are compatible (ParismdashBerlin for example) and gradually extend the lines to reach full potential such as ParismdashWarsaw

3 Invest in night train rolling stock

Night trains can be a positive alternative to intra-Eu-ropean flights They can serve both domestic and international destinations However night trains in France have been on a downslide for several years The French government has recently announced that two new national train lines will be reopened This trend should be continued as the number of night trains gradually increases and night train lines extended to international destinations

For the night train renaissance France should in-vest euro150 million each year in rolling stock as the current stock is aging and far too limited This in-vestment will incentivise industries to produce new high-quality wagons designed for the night trains

At night some of the French track capacity is re-served for maintenance work and cannot be usedThis challenge can be overcome by starting with a small number of routes providing alternative routes when needed andor subsidising SNCF Reacute-seau so that maintenance work during the night can be lsquoun-optimisedrsquo that is take place over a longer period but without stopping traffic at night copy

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26 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Spain do to boost European rail services

1 Refurbish upgrade and finalise cross-border connections between Spain Portugal and France

Cross-border connections between Spain and its neighbouring countries need an urgent upgrade to allow smooth fast and convenient passenger trips be-tween major southern European cities In the Basque country the rail lines between Hendaye and Irun should be quickly refurbished to avoid unneces-sary stop-overs and guarantee the integration of French high-speed network (ParismdashBordeauxmdashHendaye) with the Spanish high-speed line in construction between DonostiaBilbao and Vittoria (known as Basque Y) and then towards Madrid and other Spanish cities

In Central Pyrenees the historical line between Pau (Nouvelle Aquitaine) and Zaragoza (Aragon) via the monumental Canfranc International station should be relaunched by building the missing 30 km between Bedous (France) and Canfranc (Spain) This final work will increase freight and passenger connectiv-ity improve cross-border security and boost the economy of isolated regions highly dependent on tourism agriculture and industry

On the Atlantic side the cities of Lisbon and Madrid as well as Santiago de Com-postela (Galicia) and Porto need to be integrated into a high-performance network based on the upgrade of outdated rail tracks This connection would ensure the better cohesion and connection of geographically remote and pe-ripheral cities and regions with the rest of the European capitals

2 Relaunch night train services and long-distance conventional lines

Most of the night time and conventional trains between major southern Euro-pean cities (such as MadridmdashParis BarcelonamdashParis MadridmdashBarcelona Ma-dridmdashLisbon) have been abandoned in the last decade due to aggressive and unfair competition from low-cost airlines and long-distance buses However the climate crisis is pushing citizens towards low-carbon transport such as rail

27ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

Spanish citizens deserve affordable night trains and renovated long-distance trains that allow them to save time carbon and money avoiding expensive night hotels at origin and destination Relaunching cross-regional train lines is also a way to support safe inclusive and sustainable tourism in Mediterranean countries dramatically affected by the Covid crisis and related lockdowns

3 Increase the use of the network by opening the market and levelling the playing field

Spain has the longest high-speed network in Europe (2675 km) but it is the least used with only 13 billion passenger-kilometres in 2018 As a comparison France transported 49 billion passenger-km on a high-speed network of almost equal length (2548 km) When looking at passenger and freight rail together use intensity of the Spanish rail network (34 trains per day per route km) is also very low compared to the rest of Europe (146 in the Netherlands 96 in the UK 78 in Germany 43 in France)

As a large part of the high-speed infrastructure has been financed by the Eu the poor performance of rail in Spain is clearly an inefficient use of public money that should be solved by appropriate regulation and incentives The new law for sustainable mobility in the making is a unique opportunity to reverse those negative trends and fix historical pitfalls The opening of the network to new rail operators planned in 2021 should also contribute to increasing the number of passengers without building any new infrastructure Finally the rules for transport operators should be fair between air road and trains by integrating the environmental and social externalities and incentivising cleaner alternatives

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28

References

BMVI (2020) Trans-Europe Express 20 httpswwwbmvideSharedDocsENDocumentsKinnovative-rail-transport-overnight-21-09-2020pdf__blob=publicationFile (accessed 26 November 2020)

CERRE (2018) Track Access ChargesmdashCase Study Germany httpscerreorgsitescerrefiles180509_CERRE_TrackAccessCharges_CaseStudy_Germa-ny_Finalpdf (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2018) Comprehensive analysis of the existing cross-bor-der rail transport connections and missing links on the internal EU borders httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-detail-publicatione68ec381-62f7-11e8-ab9c-01aa75ed71a1language-en (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2019) Remaining Challenges for EU-wide integrated ticketing and payment services httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-de-tail-publicationaf05b3eb-df43-11e9-9c4e-01aa75ed71a1 (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Court of Auditors (2018) A European high-speed rail network not a reality but an ineffective patchwork ECA Special Report httpswwwecaeuropaeuenPagesDocItemaspxdid=46398 (accessed 26 Novem-ber 2020)

Eurostat (2020) Air passenger transport between the main airports (data sets avia_par_fr avia_par_pl avia_par_de avia_par_es avia_par_b) httpseceuropaeueurostatwebmainhome (accessed 26 November 2020)

Independent Regulatorrsquos Group (IRG) (2020) 8th IRG-Rail Market Monitoring Report httpsirg-raileuirgdocumentsmarket-monitoring (accessed 26 November 2020)

International Railway Journal (2020) Spain urged to rebalance high-speed and suburban rail development 7 August 2020 httpswwwrailjournalcompassengerhigh-speedspain-urged-to-rebalance-high-speed-and-subur-ban-rail-investment (accessed 26 November 2020)

Page 7: Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe...Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe How the 2021 European Year of Rail can˜support the˜European Green Deal and a

7

Connecting long-distance trains to regional rail services does not always require new high-speed infrastructure Much of the infrastructure is already there especially in western Europe but is not utilised to its full potential A Euro-pean Commission report found that of 202 operational cross-border rail links only 57 were fully exploited in 2017 (European Commission 2018) In many cases more efficient use of existing high-speed or even conven-tional infrastructure and better coordination of timetables would be sufficient A well-coordinated timetable could also integrate regional and long-distance trains and improve connectivity in Europe

Currently the main obstacles to international services are

Q National perspective incumbent operators focus on their national market (especially on lucrative main routes) and often lack an international vision and experience (eg market potential administrative) Trains stop at lsquoat every haystackrsquo which might make sense from a national perspective but leads to additional travel times for international services

Q Administrative hurdles make international services less attractive for operators For example they need to apply for track capacity with various

WarsawmdashVilnius

WarsawmdashPrague

BerlinmdashCopenhagen

BerlinmdashBrussels

BerlinmdashParis

ParismdashMadrid

MadridmdashLisbon

Neighbours but no direct train betweenhellip

8 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

infrastructure managers drivers are required to speak several languages and rolling stock needs to be designed and licensed for different national electricity signalling and safety systems

What is needed is a European spirit in planning and management of rail services and start-up support for new international services In the 1960s and 70s a network of direct trans-continental services connected Europe across bordersmdashthe Trans-Eu-rope Express (TEE) This joint endeavour of French German Swiss Dutch Belgian Luxembourg and Italian railways only offered first-class services and only connected a number of countries in western and central Europe however the idea might serve as a starting point TEE trains only stopped at major cities and were often scheduled to allow travellers to do a roundtrip in a single day At its height in the

late 1970s the TEE served 31 routes The network also gave impetus to the de-velopment of interoperable trains that could run on different voltage systems

A new East-West European line WarsawmdashBerlinmdashBrusselsmdashParisA direct service between Warsaw and Paris could be the first test case for new international lines There are already direct services on the following sections WarsawmdashBerlin (6h) BerlinmdashCologne ColognemdashBrussels BrusselsmdashParis (1h30)The TEE20 study assumes that WarsawmdashParis journey can currently be done in 13h15 with in-frastructure improvements travel time could be reduced to 12h45 (BMVI 2020) There is already rolling stock (TGV) available that is certified in Ger-many Belgium and France While the certification process in Poland is ongoing the trial service could start with BerlinmdashParisThe route would have a significant potential to shift flights to rail as some sections are heavily frequent-ed flight routes There are more than five million passengers every year who fly the total distance WarsawmdashParis or smaller sections of it For in-stance between Cologne and Paris an average of more than 2500 people fly every day and between Berlin and Paris 3000 (in 2019 Eurostat 2020)

Germany is a key player for new European rail servicesDue to its central location in the EU Germany is crucially important for a European rail network Yet running international services through Germany is difficult as

Q Germany is one of the few EU member states that does not place public service obligations onlong-distance rail services

Q the German infrastructure manager DB Netz charges one of the highest mark-ups on track access charges in the EU Many other EU mem-ber states charge only direct costs for infra-structure use and no additional mark-ups

Q responsibility for train services is devolved to re-gional government cross-border coordination with Germany is more difficult than with other EU member states

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9A EuROPEAN NET WORk

A few decades ago countries in Europe were still connected via many night train routes but most of these have been discontinued These night trains were important connections particularly for longer distances Austrian rail operator OumlBB has begun to revive some of the routes

In September 2020 the German government proposed reviving the TEE idea with eight core international routes together with a network of European night trains (BMVI 2020) The idea of a TEE20 is a good start to lsquoEuropeanisingrsquo train services and overcoming some of the major hur-dles The proposed network could then be ex-panded to reach further into SpainPortugal and south and eastern Europe

How can the EU launch new international rail ser-vices in the short term

Q Get started Agree on one or two corridors to start with (eg WarsawmdashBerlinmdashBrusselsmdashParis or AmsterdammdashParismdashBarcelona)

Q Corridor coordination Task the European Railway Agency (ERA) with coordinating rail ser-vices on these corridors to create a one-stop shop for train operators The agency could provide information on which rolling stock is required and the frequency and speed of the services It could facilitate coordination between infrastructure managers to ensure that services get the required track slots for fast and smooth journeys

Q Start-up support Determine those sections of the corridor that the service can run on a commercial basis and those where it needs subsidies (at least to get started) start-up support should be tied to the condi-tion that low-price tickets are available to make the service accessible to price-sensitive passengers

Q Vision Agree on a comprehensive network of European day and night trains with trains crossing external EU borders into the neighbourhood (especially to the uk Western Balkans Turkey ukraine Belarus and Russia)

A new NorthmdashSouth European line AmsterdammdashBarcelonaAnother test case could be a direct service between Amsterdam and Barcelona Currently there are trains making this journey in three segments Am-sterdammdashBrussels (2h30) BrusselsmdashLyon (3h45) and LyonmdashBarcelona (5h)mdasha total of 11 hours 15 minutes A direct train could connect Amsterdam and Barcelona in 10h15 Rolling stock is available for this route the Siemens Velaro train is certified in Netherlands Belgium France and Spain The route would have significant potential to shift travel from air to rail For example there are on average 6500 people flying from Paris to Barce-lona each day In 2019 almost 85 million people took a flight on the AmsterdammdashBarcelona route or smaller sections of it (Eurostat 2020)

WarsawBerlinHanover

Cologne

Frankfurt

KarlsruheFreiburg

Basel

Lyon

Milan

Bologna

Rome

Montpellier

PerpignanBarcelona

Mulhouse

Amsterdam

Short-term implementation of the TEE20

Sour

ce B

MVI

(202

0)

10

Easy booking Make rail data sharing mandatory

Booking international flights is very easy but buying international rail tickets is the opposite Passengers cannot easily find and compare all available con-nections and prices and bear the risk of delays on the way That needs to change travelling by rail needs to become at least as easy as travelling by plane Consumers should be able to book rail tickets for any connection in the Eu via one-stop shops In the best case this should integrate with other sustainable modes for the first and last miles of the passengerrsquos journey such asbuses trams shared bikes etc

It is not possible to book a train ticket FrankfurtmdashBarcelona onlineIf you try to buy a train ticket from Frankfurt to Barcelona this is what you find

Q Deutsche Bahn shows two connections (fastest is 13h04) that reach Barce-lona within the same day but no tickets are sold

Q SNCF shows no connections Q RENFE shows no connections and this information is available only in Spanish Q Trainline offers tickets for three connections which are different from the

Deutsche Bahn connections and require at least 25 hours of travelling Q Omio shows no connection

The only possible ways to book the trip from Frankfurt to Barcelona are to buy tickets for segments of the journey from the different operatorsrsquo websites con-tact an offline travel agent or queue up at one of the few remaining Deutsche Bahn ticket sale desksAs a comparison Google Flights search shows for the same day approximately 60 connections even during the Covid-19 pandemic

2PRIORITY

11

The Eu has trusted the rail sector to find its own solution but that sector has delayed progress for years Technical solu-tions for integrating information from different train providers are available Independent online ticket vendors like Trainline Omio etc try to assemble tickets from different operators but their websites do not yet show all available rail connections and ticket offers This is because rail operators are reluctant to share all the necessary data with other operators or with independent ticket vendors

The EU needs to require rail operators to share all nec-essary data for easy booking of international rail trips European law currently obliges transport operators to share only some basic data such as static travel and traffic data (19262017 Delegated Regulation of the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) Directive) The regulation does not cover fare data and also leaves it open to member states to require dynamic travel and traffic data (eg information on platform numbers and changes accurate seat plans real-time delays and cancellations predicted arrival time) These data are critical for a seamless journey and for passengers to be able to find alternative connections in case of disruptions (European Commission 2019)

Finland shows the way for multimodal ticketingFinland is the European frontrunner when it comes to multimodal ticketing The 2018 Transport Act obliges all mo-bility service providers to grant access to essential data sales interfaces and reservation interfaces via an Applica-tion Programming Interface (API) The law thus covers not only rail but also public road services Mobility service providers are obliged to cooperate and to enter into agreements based on criteria set out in the Transport Act The Finnish Transport Agency is responsible for monitoring the supply and demand of mobility services and produces statistics from the data ob-tained (European Commission 2019)

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12 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

Some member states move beyond that regulation while others implement only the absolute minimum resulting in legal fragmentation across the EU In Germany for instance Deutsche Bahn (DB) data on timetables and planned disruptions is open to ticket vendors but not data on real-time platforms real-time delays and cancellations or next-day information on delays and cancellation (which is required for claiming compensation)

The EU needs to establish a comprehensive multimodal legal framework for booking ticketing and payment services In its 2021 Work Programme the European Commission announced it would revise the ITS Directive and propose a multimodal ticketing initiative This initiative needs to fulfil the fol-lowing criteria

Q The framework will make access to static and dynamic data manda-tory (including routes stops timetables prices and the availability and accessibility of services)

Q Rail operators will be required to share data via an open Application Programming Interface (API) which must be in machine readable for-mat Many operators have so far failed to build interfaces into their own booking systems

Q The framework should allow ticket vendors to assemble their own discount and promotion packages to compete in an open ticketing market

The EU needs to establish rules to guaran-tee that international rail passengers arrive at their final destination and can hop on the next train in case of missed train connections Rail pas-sengers often need to buy individual tickets from different rail operators for a multi-leg journeymdashand under current rules passengers bear the risk if a connection is missed Rail operators are cur-rently not obliged to sell so-called lsquothrough ticketsrsquo that is one ticket contract for multi-leg journey with a guarantee to arrive at the final destination Also independent ticket vendors that assemble tickets from various operators do not offer such an lsquoarrival guaranteersquo As there are only a few direct interna-tional train connections between major European cities this is a concern for passengers

The BerlinmdashBrussels roulettemdash no lsquohop on the next trainrsquoWhen travelling by train from Berlin to Brussels passengers need to change trains in Cologne Fre-quently the ICE train (operated by DB) from Berlin to Cologne is delayed and travellers miss their con-nection From Cologne to Brussels there is only one ICE train every two hours but a Thalys train several times a day in the lsquointerim slotsrsquo Yet the DB traveller is not allowed to take the Thalys trains to Brussels earlier than the next ICE train because there is no lsquohop on the next trainrsquo agreement between Thalys and DB meaning travellers oftenneed 08h49 in-stead of 06h49 for the trip

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13EASY BOOkING

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14

Smart spending Use EU money to improve rail infrastructure capacity and connectivity

EU funding (cohesion funding Connecting Europe Facility Recovery and Resil-ience Facility) makes up an important share of overall transport infrastructure funding especially in the new member states Yet in the past Eu transport funding has not always been used wisely Too much funding went into road and airports and too little into rail This is especially the case for EU cohesion fund-ing around 50 of transport cohesion funding goes into road and only 25 into rail projects Funding decisions are based on plans prepared by the

respective member state and negotiated between member states and the European Commission

European Investment Bank (EIB) transport lending is still supporting unsustainable infrastructure such as airports and new motorway projects Transport is the single largest sector of EIB activity accounting for about 1 in every 4 euros invested by the bank The bank is however in the process of revising both its climate (2020) and transport policies (2021)

Too much money also goes into mega-projects with exploding costs and long delays The Eu-ropean Court of Auditors (2018) cautioned that projects were often chosen based on political de-cisions and not on thorough cost-benefit analyses

3

Only one out of seven border crossings between Germany and Poland is electrifiedThere were once 24 rail links between Germany and Poland of which only seven remain in operation Yet only the border crossing at Frankfurt (Oder) is electrified The trains from Berlin to Warsaw or to Gdansk operate on this line The remaining six border crossings are not yet electrified meaning that trains need to run on diesel The CottbusmdashLegnica link is particularly relevant to connect Berlin to densely populated Southern Poland (Wroclaw Silesia Krakow) To electrify this 138 km link would cost approximately euro100 million but could reduce travel time between Berlin and Wroclaw from currently 45 hours to only 3 hours because Eurocity trains could take a more direct route (currently going through Frankfurt (Oder)) For comparison before the 2nd World War travel time was only 25 hours

PRIORITY

15

The evaluated high-speed projects took 16 years on average cost on average euro25 million per track km but often do not deliver on expectations average speeds rarely reach 200 kmh and only few lines transported more than nine million passengers per year (the benchmark for a successful high-speed line) In contrast small-scale interventions with greater European potential are of-ten not implemented This can be electrification constructing a second track or bypasses to increase capacity and speed or closing smaller missing links on the border

The European Court of Auditors also noted a lack of coordination of cross-border infrastructure projects Member states take a national perspec-tive and do not prioritise closing cross-border gaps This means that infrastructure might have been completed on one side of the border but delayed by years on the other side

The EU should ensure that EU funding

Q Supports modal shift towards rail In the negotiations of the Operational Programmes for Cohesion funding the European Commis-sion should ensure that more budget goes to rail than to road and no new roads are financedin the old member states as they al-ready have a sufficiently dense road network The European Commission should also ask member states to present modal shift tar-gets if they want to access funds for trans-port under the Recovery and Resilience Facility The EIB should in the upcoming review of its Transport Strategy decide to stop funding any airport infrastructure or road network expansion and instead increase funding for electric cross-border rail projects and rolling stock

Q Prioritises rail projects essential for intra-European rail services Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funding should only go into projects that are key to cross-border connectivity (eg for key corridors) and should focus more on low-hanging fruits than on new mega-projects Such inter-ventions should be based on sound cost-benefit analysis When evaluating

Spain has only one international long-distance rail lineSpain has invested massively into high-speed lines over the last decades with euro14 billion (25 of total investment) coming from Eu funds (Inter-national Railway Journal 2020) Yet there is only one international high-speed rail line connecting Barcelona with Montpellier in France The tracks are underused with only two services per day For regional services there are additional border crossings in Portbou-Perpignan (Mediterranean coast) IrunHendaye (Atlantic coast) and Puigcerda (Pyrenees) but none of them is serviced frequently Another difficulty on these regional lines is that trains need to change between standard and Ibe-rian track gauge at the borderThe connection between Spain and Portugal is even worse a rail trip from Madrid to Lisbon (625 km) takes 10h50 and requires three changes as only regional lines operate across borders There are border crossings in Badajoz-Elvas Fregenada-Bar-ca de Alva and Vigo-Porto but they are under-used The only long-distance line to Portugal is a night train from HendayeIrun to Lisbon (currently sus-pended due to Covid-19) The TEN-T network plan foresees a high-speed connection between Madrid and Lisbon as part of the core network but the project is currently not being pursued by either the Portuguese or the Spanish government

16 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

member statesrsquo operational programmes for cohesion fundingrecovery funding the European Commission should suggest to member states that they include rail projects that are key tothe functioning of a European rail network

Q Promotes infrastructure interventions which are accompanied by transformative measures When accessing EU rail infrastructure funding member states should be required to present accompanying policy measures which ensure that the infrastructure is used efficiently

Other policy interventions for supporting European rail

Apart from the above mentioned priorities the EU and member states should address the following obstacles

Q International rail has no strong voice in the current system because member states and incumbent railway operators tend to focus on their own national markets There is also a lack of coordination of infrastructure managers across borders The EU should strengthen the European Rail Agency (ERA) as a traffic control and coordination authority for international rail transport The ERA should be entrusted with forecasting demand assessing the level of required services (destination frequency speed) and allocating capacities The ERA could identify routes that may be of interest to travellers but which are not yet fully exploited and could make this information available to train operators It could also determine which sections of the desired network services would be

Examples of bordercrossings between Spain France Belgium Germany and Poland that need urgent attention

Member States involved Border crossing Important for Required action

Germany mdash Poland Cottbus mdash Forst mdash  Legnica

connecting Berlin with southern Poland electrification of 138 km

France mdash Germany Colmar mdash Freiburg connecting regions build 1 km bridge

Spain mdash France Astigarraga mdash IrunthinspHendaye mdash Bayonne

connecting Bordeaux to northern Spain

upgrade cross-border section

Spain mdash France (Pau) Bedous mdash Canfranc (Zaragoza)

Reconnect central corridor in the Pyrenees

Refurbishment of 30 km railtrack on French side

17SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

commercially viable and where public service obligations (PSOs) would be needed in order to guarantee a service

Q Night train operators and new rail operators have an especially hard time finding trains that can operate in more than one country The second-hand market for interoperable rolling stock and night trains is limited ordering an entire new fleet is prohibitively expensive and no func-tioning leasing market is in place for this specific segment The Eu and member states should help to find new creative finance mechanisms for overcoming the lack of rolling stock and consider establishing a publicly managed rolling stock pool

Q Airlines pay no tax on kerosene receive 85 of allowances of the European Emissions Trading Scheme free of charge and pay no VAT on international tickets This creates an uneven playing field between aviation and rail The European Commission has announced it will review both the EU Energy Taxation Directive and the EU ETS Directive in 2021 It is crucial to use this opportunity to introduce a kerosene tax in-troduce full auctioning for aviation allowances in the EU ETS and create a stronger price for emission allowances

Q Track access charges are prohibitively high in some EU member states EU Regulation suggests that charges should cover only marginal costs but some member states ask for much higher mark ups for example on highly frequented routes or during rush hours This creates an unfair advantage for road transport which pays only infrastructure charges on approximately 3 of the Eu road network For freight rail some member states have reduced charges but not so for passenger rail EU member states should agree to reduce track access charges to direct cost levels This would increase the use of tracks and could bring higher in-come for infrastructure managers in return During the transition period alternative funding to cover losses of infrastructure managers could come from ETS auctioning revenues

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18 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

Why is this important

Rail can help the EU to achieve its climate targets

Rail is the cleanest mode of transport A flight from Paris to Berlin causes at least six times the CO2 emissions of a train journey Counting the also non-CO2 impacts of aviation the flight is responsible for 18 times the climate impact of a rail trip With further electrification and decarbonisation of power generation the carbon emissions of rail could be reduced to close to zero

Intra-European flights on distances less than 1000 km are estimated to cause 28 MtCO2 every year without counting the non-CO2 impacts Seventeen of the 20 most frequented air routes in Europe are for distances less than 700 km In theory almost all of these journeys could be shifted to rail

The better European cities are connected by rail the easier it is to move trans-port away from high-polluting transport modes such as aviation and cars The more attractive and easy-to-use rail services are the more likely it is that people will want to switch

Rail can be a driver for European recovery post-Covid-19

The rail sector employs more than 23 million people (directly and indirectly) and creates a gross value added of euro143 billion of which euro66 billion is created directly by the sector This is larger than the gross value added of air transport The Eu rail supply industry accounts for around 20 of the global market

Rail infrastructure investments usually need more time but add to mid-term stability and growth expectations in the construction sector Some rail in-frastructure modernisation projects could be realised rapidlymdashfor example track switches bypasses European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) The investments needed for the realisation of the Trans-European Transport (TEN-T) core network for example is estimated to create euro45 trillion cumulated GDP and 13 million job-years EU-wide

19SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

Rail connects people cities and countries

In contrast to aviation rail not only services highly frequented core routes but also has a network that reaches into remote regions This network was much more dense 50 years ago both within countries and in border regions While many connections are not in use anymore because of massive divestment from rail many could easily be reinstalled A network of fast long-distance connections combined with dense regional services could make Europeans feel connected to and part of the EU

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20

Annex Specific recommendations for Poland Germany France and Spain

What can Poland do to boost European rail services

1 Create fair conditions for infrastructure access

The current system of infrastructure access charges is extremely asymmetric and strongly favours road over rail transport Rail currently pays infrastructure access charges on 100 of the railway network (including layovers or the use of railway stations) while road (bus) operators pay charges only on 1 of Pol-ish roads and individual drivers pay only for selected sections of motorways representing around 02 of the entire network Infrastructure charges of road and rail should be aligned in all market segmentsmdashincluding international long-distance transport

The second problem is the high level of track access charges for rail operators As a first step track access charges in Poland should be reduced to the level of costs directly induced by the train journey This would reduce charges from the current 60 of total infrastructure maintenance costs to 30 These charges should go entirely to the Railway Fund and thus contribute to the development and construction of new railway lines (as is the case with roads) Maintenance costs should be covered through the general state budget ultimately the sys-tem of charges for transport infrastructure should be dependent on the level of external costs (pollution noise traffic safety etc)

4

21

2 Invest in interoperable rolling stock for international connections including night trains

The lack of interoperable rolling stock is a key obstacle for the launch of new international long-distance connections Due to the very limited number of in-ternational connections and small passenger flows it is not a priority for carrier investment As a result international rail operatorsmdashespecially night trainsmdashhave access only to old wagons of poor quality In addition international trains waste time at borders due to the lack of multi-system locomotives which could run on different voltage and safety systems In Poland an estimated 40 locomo-tives and approximately 350 wagons are needed to operate connections with other Eu countries (Germany Czech Republic Slovakia and Lithuania) To im-prove the quality and frequency of international connections Poland should launch an investment programme for interoperable rolling stock This could also help the country negotiate with the European union on the co-financing of rolling stock or even an Eu-financed rolling stock pool Currently the long-dis-tance segment is the only area of passenger railway in Poland not covered by any EU support programme for rolling stock

3 Elimination of barriers to entry for new railway carriers

One of the basic problems of the international transport offer is its malad-justment to modern market needs Trains run infrequently tickets are much more expensive than domestic services and there are no discounts available on international trains The reason is that the organisation of connections is left to the incumbent railway carriers from individual countries and inflexi-ble procedures for their cooperation (including archaic regulations on tariffs and ticket sales) The example of low-cost airlines shows that an effective instrument for changing this situation is opening the market to competition In the case of commercial services full deregulation of the market should be achieved Where financial support (PSO) is required to maintain traffic compet-itive tenders for carrier selection should be obligatory in accordance with the provisions of the Fourth Railway Package In the case of Poland it is essential to review and clarify the rules for market access The current regulation leaves room for misinterpretation and is commonly used to block the entry of new entrants to the market which may exert positive pressure on the quality scope and accessibility of services for passengers

22 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Germany do to boost European rail services

1 Reduce track access charges for passenger trains

According to Eu law track access charges should generally only reflect direct costs (wear and tear costs) but Germany for instance makes use of an ex-emption and charges full costs for passenger trains (ie including infrastructure maintenance costs) The German track access charges are as a consequence five times as high as the mere direct costs would be (CERRE 2018) This results in very high access charges for train operators accounting for around a third of total operation costs The average costs per kilometre for long-distance trains rose by 18 between 2013 and 2018 For freight rail Germany has already decided to halve its track access charges The same approach to passenger rail could be a first step in incentivising more international services and to make rail more competitive with other transport modes The lost income for infra-structure managers would need to come from Germanyrsquos general budget

2 Establish a competent national authority for long-distance rail

Germany is the only Eu member state without a national contracting authority for rail transport When Germany reformed its rail system in the 1990s it es-tablished in each of the federal states (Bundeslaumlnder) at least one contract-ing authority responsible for organising and ordering regional rail passenger services and for determining public service obligations There are now 27 re-gional contracting authorities but no such authority at federal level Article 87e(4) of the German constitution obliges the federal government to guarantee non-regional services and provides the legal basis for establishing a national contracting authority by law Yet after more than two decades Germany has still not introduced such a law meaning that all long-distancetrains need to run solely on a commercial basis

This has led to gaps in the national network of long-distance trains and raises the question of how Germany can implement its so-called lsquoDeutschlandtaktrsquo

23ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

an integrated timetable for 2030 which includes routes not commercially via-ble It also makes it more difficult to run international trains through Germany Operating international trains is usually more costly because of higher coor-dination and administration costs and the need to buy or lease interoperable rolling stock In contrast to many other Eu member states Germany provides no support for long-distance trains in the form of public service obligations (PSOs) and also seems to object toother governments covering the German part of the route with PSOs as a recent feasibility study on a StockholmmdashBrus-sels night train revealed

3 Electrify border crossings to Poland and Czech Republic

Most international long-distance trains today run on electricity which is not only cleaner but also faster Only 61 of Germanyrsquos railway network is elec-trified and only 27 of its 57 border crossings into neighbouring countries are electrified Most non-electrified border crossings are on the eastern borders 13 into the Czech Republic and eight into Poland The lack of electrification usually means that locomotives need to be changed at the border adding to travel times and that many faster trains cannot run on those sections To better connect with the east Germany should urgently electrify the following sections

Q CottbusmdashForstmdashLegnica 138 km electrification would speed up services from Berlin to Wroclaw and krakow

Q DresdenmdashGoumlrlitzmdashZgorzelec 95 km electrification would improve train connections between Dresden and Wrocław

Q RegensburgmdashFurth im Wald 131 km electrification would speed up ser-vices from Munich to Prague to less than four hours

Q NuumlrnbergmdashSchirndingmdashCheb 140 km electrification would reduce travel time between Nuremberg and Prague to less than four hours

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24 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can France do to boost European rail services

1 Initiate a national strategy for a modal shift from air to rail

Massive modal shift is no longer an option but a necessity if France is to reach its targets of CO2 emissions Yet there is no long-term plan to reduce the number of flights taken for European travel Such a strategy is much needed as it would allow for long-term planning better coordination with the ERA and better coordination between long-distance and local trains

With an extensive network of railways lines already in place international con-nections do not require any major infrastructure works and couldbe created very quickly What is lacking is an integrated strategy to promote train over air for domestic and European travel France should set clear objectives in modal shift by 2030 and 2050 in accordance with national low carbon strategy (SNBC)

As long- and medium-distance train connections (both day and night ) can be an important asset to reach French climate targets France should create further incentives to boost this modal shift introducing VAT on European flights and reducing VAT on train travel Airport expansion projects in France should also be halted as they undermine efforts towards low emission mobility

2 Ease emergence of new players for long-distance connections

As the European rail market opens private and lsquohistoricrsquo incumbents will have the opportunity to operate new European connections This opening of the Eu-ropean train market will be an opportunity for new train companies to operate these trans-European connections To encourage lsquonewcomersrsquo France should guarantee that the services of these private companies will be able to set up their businesses and operate without obstacles set track access charges to its direct costs level and guarantee that newcomers will have access to public infrastructure and tracks

25ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

The opening of the market could also be an opportunity for incumbents such as SNCF As has been done with Thalys or Eurostar SNCF should initiate a part-nership with other national andor private companies to operate one or several of the European corridors that will be designed

It is quite possible to lsquostart smallrsquo operating only on the sections where infra-structure and rolling stock are compatible (ParismdashBerlin for example) and gradually extend the lines to reach full potential such as ParismdashWarsaw

3 Invest in night train rolling stock

Night trains can be a positive alternative to intra-Eu-ropean flights They can serve both domestic and international destinations However night trains in France have been on a downslide for several years The French government has recently announced that two new national train lines will be reopened This trend should be continued as the number of night trains gradually increases and night train lines extended to international destinations

For the night train renaissance France should in-vest euro150 million each year in rolling stock as the current stock is aging and far too limited This in-vestment will incentivise industries to produce new high-quality wagons designed for the night trains

At night some of the French track capacity is re-served for maintenance work and cannot be usedThis challenge can be overcome by starting with a small number of routes providing alternative routes when needed andor subsidising SNCF Reacute-seau so that maintenance work during the night can be lsquoun-optimisedrsquo that is take place over a longer period but without stopping traffic at night copy

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26 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Spain do to boost European rail services

1 Refurbish upgrade and finalise cross-border connections between Spain Portugal and France

Cross-border connections between Spain and its neighbouring countries need an urgent upgrade to allow smooth fast and convenient passenger trips be-tween major southern European cities In the Basque country the rail lines between Hendaye and Irun should be quickly refurbished to avoid unneces-sary stop-overs and guarantee the integration of French high-speed network (ParismdashBordeauxmdashHendaye) with the Spanish high-speed line in construction between DonostiaBilbao and Vittoria (known as Basque Y) and then towards Madrid and other Spanish cities

In Central Pyrenees the historical line between Pau (Nouvelle Aquitaine) and Zaragoza (Aragon) via the monumental Canfranc International station should be relaunched by building the missing 30 km between Bedous (France) and Canfranc (Spain) This final work will increase freight and passenger connectiv-ity improve cross-border security and boost the economy of isolated regions highly dependent on tourism agriculture and industry

On the Atlantic side the cities of Lisbon and Madrid as well as Santiago de Com-postela (Galicia) and Porto need to be integrated into a high-performance network based on the upgrade of outdated rail tracks This connection would ensure the better cohesion and connection of geographically remote and pe-ripheral cities and regions with the rest of the European capitals

2 Relaunch night train services and long-distance conventional lines

Most of the night time and conventional trains between major southern Euro-pean cities (such as MadridmdashParis BarcelonamdashParis MadridmdashBarcelona Ma-dridmdashLisbon) have been abandoned in the last decade due to aggressive and unfair competition from low-cost airlines and long-distance buses However the climate crisis is pushing citizens towards low-carbon transport such as rail

27ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

Spanish citizens deserve affordable night trains and renovated long-distance trains that allow them to save time carbon and money avoiding expensive night hotels at origin and destination Relaunching cross-regional train lines is also a way to support safe inclusive and sustainable tourism in Mediterranean countries dramatically affected by the Covid crisis and related lockdowns

3 Increase the use of the network by opening the market and levelling the playing field

Spain has the longest high-speed network in Europe (2675 km) but it is the least used with only 13 billion passenger-kilometres in 2018 As a comparison France transported 49 billion passenger-km on a high-speed network of almost equal length (2548 km) When looking at passenger and freight rail together use intensity of the Spanish rail network (34 trains per day per route km) is also very low compared to the rest of Europe (146 in the Netherlands 96 in the UK 78 in Germany 43 in France)

As a large part of the high-speed infrastructure has been financed by the Eu the poor performance of rail in Spain is clearly an inefficient use of public money that should be solved by appropriate regulation and incentives The new law for sustainable mobility in the making is a unique opportunity to reverse those negative trends and fix historical pitfalls The opening of the network to new rail operators planned in 2021 should also contribute to increasing the number of passengers without building any new infrastructure Finally the rules for transport operators should be fair between air road and trains by integrating the environmental and social externalities and incentivising cleaner alternatives

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28

References

BMVI (2020) Trans-Europe Express 20 httpswwwbmvideSharedDocsENDocumentsKinnovative-rail-transport-overnight-21-09-2020pdf__blob=publicationFile (accessed 26 November 2020)

CERRE (2018) Track Access ChargesmdashCase Study Germany httpscerreorgsitescerrefiles180509_CERRE_TrackAccessCharges_CaseStudy_Germa-ny_Finalpdf (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2018) Comprehensive analysis of the existing cross-bor-der rail transport connections and missing links on the internal EU borders httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-detail-publicatione68ec381-62f7-11e8-ab9c-01aa75ed71a1language-en (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2019) Remaining Challenges for EU-wide integrated ticketing and payment services httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-de-tail-publicationaf05b3eb-df43-11e9-9c4e-01aa75ed71a1 (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Court of Auditors (2018) A European high-speed rail network not a reality but an ineffective patchwork ECA Special Report httpswwwecaeuropaeuenPagesDocItemaspxdid=46398 (accessed 26 Novem-ber 2020)

Eurostat (2020) Air passenger transport between the main airports (data sets avia_par_fr avia_par_pl avia_par_de avia_par_es avia_par_b) httpseceuropaeueurostatwebmainhome (accessed 26 November 2020)

Independent Regulatorrsquos Group (IRG) (2020) 8th IRG-Rail Market Monitoring Report httpsirg-raileuirgdocumentsmarket-monitoring (accessed 26 November 2020)

International Railway Journal (2020) Spain urged to rebalance high-speed and suburban rail development 7 August 2020 httpswwwrailjournalcompassengerhigh-speedspain-urged-to-rebalance-high-speed-and-subur-ban-rail-investment (accessed 26 November 2020)

Page 8: Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe...Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe How the 2021 European Year of Rail can˜support the˜European Green Deal and a

8 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

infrastructure managers drivers are required to speak several languages and rolling stock needs to be designed and licensed for different national electricity signalling and safety systems

What is needed is a European spirit in planning and management of rail services and start-up support for new international services In the 1960s and 70s a network of direct trans-continental services connected Europe across bordersmdashthe Trans-Eu-rope Express (TEE) This joint endeavour of French German Swiss Dutch Belgian Luxembourg and Italian railways only offered first-class services and only connected a number of countries in western and central Europe however the idea might serve as a starting point TEE trains only stopped at major cities and were often scheduled to allow travellers to do a roundtrip in a single day At its height in the

late 1970s the TEE served 31 routes The network also gave impetus to the de-velopment of interoperable trains that could run on different voltage systems

A new East-West European line WarsawmdashBerlinmdashBrusselsmdashParisA direct service between Warsaw and Paris could be the first test case for new international lines There are already direct services on the following sections WarsawmdashBerlin (6h) BerlinmdashCologne ColognemdashBrussels BrusselsmdashParis (1h30)The TEE20 study assumes that WarsawmdashParis journey can currently be done in 13h15 with in-frastructure improvements travel time could be reduced to 12h45 (BMVI 2020) There is already rolling stock (TGV) available that is certified in Ger-many Belgium and France While the certification process in Poland is ongoing the trial service could start with BerlinmdashParisThe route would have a significant potential to shift flights to rail as some sections are heavily frequent-ed flight routes There are more than five million passengers every year who fly the total distance WarsawmdashParis or smaller sections of it For in-stance between Cologne and Paris an average of more than 2500 people fly every day and between Berlin and Paris 3000 (in 2019 Eurostat 2020)

Germany is a key player for new European rail servicesDue to its central location in the EU Germany is crucially important for a European rail network Yet running international services through Germany is difficult as

Q Germany is one of the few EU member states that does not place public service obligations onlong-distance rail services

Q the German infrastructure manager DB Netz charges one of the highest mark-ups on track access charges in the EU Many other EU mem-ber states charge only direct costs for infra-structure use and no additional mark-ups

Q responsibility for train services is devolved to re-gional government cross-border coordination with Germany is more difficult than with other EU member states

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9A EuROPEAN NET WORk

A few decades ago countries in Europe were still connected via many night train routes but most of these have been discontinued These night trains were important connections particularly for longer distances Austrian rail operator OumlBB has begun to revive some of the routes

In September 2020 the German government proposed reviving the TEE idea with eight core international routes together with a network of European night trains (BMVI 2020) The idea of a TEE20 is a good start to lsquoEuropeanisingrsquo train services and overcoming some of the major hur-dles The proposed network could then be ex-panded to reach further into SpainPortugal and south and eastern Europe

How can the EU launch new international rail ser-vices in the short term

Q Get started Agree on one or two corridors to start with (eg WarsawmdashBerlinmdashBrusselsmdashParis or AmsterdammdashParismdashBarcelona)

Q Corridor coordination Task the European Railway Agency (ERA) with coordinating rail ser-vices on these corridors to create a one-stop shop for train operators The agency could provide information on which rolling stock is required and the frequency and speed of the services It could facilitate coordination between infrastructure managers to ensure that services get the required track slots for fast and smooth journeys

Q Start-up support Determine those sections of the corridor that the service can run on a commercial basis and those where it needs subsidies (at least to get started) start-up support should be tied to the condi-tion that low-price tickets are available to make the service accessible to price-sensitive passengers

Q Vision Agree on a comprehensive network of European day and night trains with trains crossing external EU borders into the neighbourhood (especially to the uk Western Balkans Turkey ukraine Belarus and Russia)

A new NorthmdashSouth European line AmsterdammdashBarcelonaAnother test case could be a direct service between Amsterdam and Barcelona Currently there are trains making this journey in three segments Am-sterdammdashBrussels (2h30) BrusselsmdashLyon (3h45) and LyonmdashBarcelona (5h)mdasha total of 11 hours 15 minutes A direct train could connect Amsterdam and Barcelona in 10h15 Rolling stock is available for this route the Siemens Velaro train is certified in Netherlands Belgium France and Spain The route would have significant potential to shift travel from air to rail For example there are on average 6500 people flying from Paris to Barce-lona each day In 2019 almost 85 million people took a flight on the AmsterdammdashBarcelona route or smaller sections of it (Eurostat 2020)

WarsawBerlinHanover

Cologne

Frankfurt

KarlsruheFreiburg

Basel

Lyon

Milan

Bologna

Rome

Montpellier

PerpignanBarcelona

Mulhouse

Amsterdam

Short-term implementation of the TEE20

Sour

ce B

MVI

(202

0)

10

Easy booking Make rail data sharing mandatory

Booking international flights is very easy but buying international rail tickets is the opposite Passengers cannot easily find and compare all available con-nections and prices and bear the risk of delays on the way That needs to change travelling by rail needs to become at least as easy as travelling by plane Consumers should be able to book rail tickets for any connection in the Eu via one-stop shops In the best case this should integrate with other sustainable modes for the first and last miles of the passengerrsquos journey such asbuses trams shared bikes etc

It is not possible to book a train ticket FrankfurtmdashBarcelona onlineIf you try to buy a train ticket from Frankfurt to Barcelona this is what you find

Q Deutsche Bahn shows two connections (fastest is 13h04) that reach Barce-lona within the same day but no tickets are sold

Q SNCF shows no connections Q RENFE shows no connections and this information is available only in Spanish Q Trainline offers tickets for three connections which are different from the

Deutsche Bahn connections and require at least 25 hours of travelling Q Omio shows no connection

The only possible ways to book the trip from Frankfurt to Barcelona are to buy tickets for segments of the journey from the different operatorsrsquo websites con-tact an offline travel agent or queue up at one of the few remaining Deutsche Bahn ticket sale desksAs a comparison Google Flights search shows for the same day approximately 60 connections even during the Covid-19 pandemic

2PRIORITY

11

The Eu has trusted the rail sector to find its own solution but that sector has delayed progress for years Technical solu-tions for integrating information from different train providers are available Independent online ticket vendors like Trainline Omio etc try to assemble tickets from different operators but their websites do not yet show all available rail connections and ticket offers This is because rail operators are reluctant to share all the necessary data with other operators or with independent ticket vendors

The EU needs to require rail operators to share all nec-essary data for easy booking of international rail trips European law currently obliges transport operators to share only some basic data such as static travel and traffic data (19262017 Delegated Regulation of the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) Directive) The regulation does not cover fare data and also leaves it open to member states to require dynamic travel and traffic data (eg information on platform numbers and changes accurate seat plans real-time delays and cancellations predicted arrival time) These data are critical for a seamless journey and for passengers to be able to find alternative connections in case of disruptions (European Commission 2019)

Finland shows the way for multimodal ticketingFinland is the European frontrunner when it comes to multimodal ticketing The 2018 Transport Act obliges all mo-bility service providers to grant access to essential data sales interfaces and reservation interfaces via an Applica-tion Programming Interface (API) The law thus covers not only rail but also public road services Mobility service providers are obliged to cooperate and to enter into agreements based on criteria set out in the Transport Act The Finnish Transport Agency is responsible for monitoring the supply and demand of mobility services and produces statistics from the data ob-tained (European Commission 2019)

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12 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

Some member states move beyond that regulation while others implement only the absolute minimum resulting in legal fragmentation across the EU In Germany for instance Deutsche Bahn (DB) data on timetables and planned disruptions is open to ticket vendors but not data on real-time platforms real-time delays and cancellations or next-day information on delays and cancellation (which is required for claiming compensation)

The EU needs to establish a comprehensive multimodal legal framework for booking ticketing and payment services In its 2021 Work Programme the European Commission announced it would revise the ITS Directive and propose a multimodal ticketing initiative This initiative needs to fulfil the fol-lowing criteria

Q The framework will make access to static and dynamic data manda-tory (including routes stops timetables prices and the availability and accessibility of services)

Q Rail operators will be required to share data via an open Application Programming Interface (API) which must be in machine readable for-mat Many operators have so far failed to build interfaces into their own booking systems

Q The framework should allow ticket vendors to assemble their own discount and promotion packages to compete in an open ticketing market

The EU needs to establish rules to guaran-tee that international rail passengers arrive at their final destination and can hop on the next train in case of missed train connections Rail pas-sengers often need to buy individual tickets from different rail operators for a multi-leg journeymdashand under current rules passengers bear the risk if a connection is missed Rail operators are cur-rently not obliged to sell so-called lsquothrough ticketsrsquo that is one ticket contract for multi-leg journey with a guarantee to arrive at the final destination Also independent ticket vendors that assemble tickets from various operators do not offer such an lsquoarrival guaranteersquo As there are only a few direct interna-tional train connections between major European cities this is a concern for passengers

The BerlinmdashBrussels roulettemdash no lsquohop on the next trainrsquoWhen travelling by train from Berlin to Brussels passengers need to change trains in Cologne Fre-quently the ICE train (operated by DB) from Berlin to Cologne is delayed and travellers miss their con-nection From Cologne to Brussels there is only one ICE train every two hours but a Thalys train several times a day in the lsquointerim slotsrsquo Yet the DB traveller is not allowed to take the Thalys trains to Brussels earlier than the next ICE train because there is no lsquohop on the next trainrsquo agreement between Thalys and DB meaning travellers oftenneed 08h49 in-stead of 06h49 for the trip

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13EASY BOOkING

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Smart spending Use EU money to improve rail infrastructure capacity and connectivity

EU funding (cohesion funding Connecting Europe Facility Recovery and Resil-ience Facility) makes up an important share of overall transport infrastructure funding especially in the new member states Yet in the past Eu transport funding has not always been used wisely Too much funding went into road and airports and too little into rail This is especially the case for EU cohesion fund-ing around 50 of transport cohesion funding goes into road and only 25 into rail projects Funding decisions are based on plans prepared by the

respective member state and negotiated between member states and the European Commission

European Investment Bank (EIB) transport lending is still supporting unsustainable infrastructure such as airports and new motorway projects Transport is the single largest sector of EIB activity accounting for about 1 in every 4 euros invested by the bank The bank is however in the process of revising both its climate (2020) and transport policies (2021)

Too much money also goes into mega-projects with exploding costs and long delays The Eu-ropean Court of Auditors (2018) cautioned that projects were often chosen based on political de-cisions and not on thorough cost-benefit analyses

3

Only one out of seven border crossings between Germany and Poland is electrifiedThere were once 24 rail links between Germany and Poland of which only seven remain in operation Yet only the border crossing at Frankfurt (Oder) is electrified The trains from Berlin to Warsaw or to Gdansk operate on this line The remaining six border crossings are not yet electrified meaning that trains need to run on diesel The CottbusmdashLegnica link is particularly relevant to connect Berlin to densely populated Southern Poland (Wroclaw Silesia Krakow) To electrify this 138 km link would cost approximately euro100 million but could reduce travel time between Berlin and Wroclaw from currently 45 hours to only 3 hours because Eurocity trains could take a more direct route (currently going through Frankfurt (Oder)) For comparison before the 2nd World War travel time was only 25 hours

PRIORITY

15

The evaluated high-speed projects took 16 years on average cost on average euro25 million per track km but often do not deliver on expectations average speeds rarely reach 200 kmh and only few lines transported more than nine million passengers per year (the benchmark for a successful high-speed line) In contrast small-scale interventions with greater European potential are of-ten not implemented This can be electrification constructing a second track or bypasses to increase capacity and speed or closing smaller missing links on the border

The European Court of Auditors also noted a lack of coordination of cross-border infrastructure projects Member states take a national perspec-tive and do not prioritise closing cross-border gaps This means that infrastructure might have been completed on one side of the border but delayed by years on the other side

The EU should ensure that EU funding

Q Supports modal shift towards rail In the negotiations of the Operational Programmes for Cohesion funding the European Commis-sion should ensure that more budget goes to rail than to road and no new roads are financedin the old member states as they al-ready have a sufficiently dense road network The European Commission should also ask member states to present modal shift tar-gets if they want to access funds for trans-port under the Recovery and Resilience Facility The EIB should in the upcoming review of its Transport Strategy decide to stop funding any airport infrastructure or road network expansion and instead increase funding for electric cross-border rail projects and rolling stock

Q Prioritises rail projects essential for intra-European rail services Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funding should only go into projects that are key to cross-border connectivity (eg for key corridors) and should focus more on low-hanging fruits than on new mega-projects Such inter-ventions should be based on sound cost-benefit analysis When evaluating

Spain has only one international long-distance rail lineSpain has invested massively into high-speed lines over the last decades with euro14 billion (25 of total investment) coming from Eu funds (Inter-national Railway Journal 2020) Yet there is only one international high-speed rail line connecting Barcelona with Montpellier in France The tracks are underused with only two services per day For regional services there are additional border crossings in Portbou-Perpignan (Mediterranean coast) IrunHendaye (Atlantic coast) and Puigcerda (Pyrenees) but none of them is serviced frequently Another difficulty on these regional lines is that trains need to change between standard and Ibe-rian track gauge at the borderThe connection between Spain and Portugal is even worse a rail trip from Madrid to Lisbon (625 km) takes 10h50 and requires three changes as only regional lines operate across borders There are border crossings in Badajoz-Elvas Fregenada-Bar-ca de Alva and Vigo-Porto but they are under-used The only long-distance line to Portugal is a night train from HendayeIrun to Lisbon (currently sus-pended due to Covid-19) The TEN-T network plan foresees a high-speed connection between Madrid and Lisbon as part of the core network but the project is currently not being pursued by either the Portuguese or the Spanish government

16 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

member statesrsquo operational programmes for cohesion fundingrecovery funding the European Commission should suggest to member states that they include rail projects that are key tothe functioning of a European rail network

Q Promotes infrastructure interventions which are accompanied by transformative measures When accessing EU rail infrastructure funding member states should be required to present accompanying policy measures which ensure that the infrastructure is used efficiently

Other policy interventions for supporting European rail

Apart from the above mentioned priorities the EU and member states should address the following obstacles

Q International rail has no strong voice in the current system because member states and incumbent railway operators tend to focus on their own national markets There is also a lack of coordination of infrastructure managers across borders The EU should strengthen the European Rail Agency (ERA) as a traffic control and coordination authority for international rail transport The ERA should be entrusted with forecasting demand assessing the level of required services (destination frequency speed) and allocating capacities The ERA could identify routes that may be of interest to travellers but which are not yet fully exploited and could make this information available to train operators It could also determine which sections of the desired network services would be

Examples of bordercrossings between Spain France Belgium Germany and Poland that need urgent attention

Member States involved Border crossing Important for Required action

Germany mdash Poland Cottbus mdash Forst mdash  Legnica

connecting Berlin with southern Poland electrification of 138 km

France mdash Germany Colmar mdash Freiburg connecting regions build 1 km bridge

Spain mdash France Astigarraga mdash IrunthinspHendaye mdash Bayonne

connecting Bordeaux to northern Spain

upgrade cross-border section

Spain mdash France (Pau) Bedous mdash Canfranc (Zaragoza)

Reconnect central corridor in the Pyrenees

Refurbishment of 30 km railtrack on French side

17SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

commercially viable and where public service obligations (PSOs) would be needed in order to guarantee a service

Q Night train operators and new rail operators have an especially hard time finding trains that can operate in more than one country The second-hand market for interoperable rolling stock and night trains is limited ordering an entire new fleet is prohibitively expensive and no func-tioning leasing market is in place for this specific segment The Eu and member states should help to find new creative finance mechanisms for overcoming the lack of rolling stock and consider establishing a publicly managed rolling stock pool

Q Airlines pay no tax on kerosene receive 85 of allowances of the European Emissions Trading Scheme free of charge and pay no VAT on international tickets This creates an uneven playing field between aviation and rail The European Commission has announced it will review both the EU Energy Taxation Directive and the EU ETS Directive in 2021 It is crucial to use this opportunity to introduce a kerosene tax in-troduce full auctioning for aviation allowances in the EU ETS and create a stronger price for emission allowances

Q Track access charges are prohibitively high in some EU member states EU Regulation suggests that charges should cover only marginal costs but some member states ask for much higher mark ups for example on highly frequented routes or during rush hours This creates an unfair advantage for road transport which pays only infrastructure charges on approximately 3 of the Eu road network For freight rail some member states have reduced charges but not so for passenger rail EU member states should agree to reduce track access charges to direct cost levels This would increase the use of tracks and could bring higher in-come for infrastructure managers in return During the transition period alternative funding to cover losses of infrastructure managers could come from ETS auctioning revenues

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18 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

Why is this important

Rail can help the EU to achieve its climate targets

Rail is the cleanest mode of transport A flight from Paris to Berlin causes at least six times the CO2 emissions of a train journey Counting the also non-CO2 impacts of aviation the flight is responsible for 18 times the climate impact of a rail trip With further electrification and decarbonisation of power generation the carbon emissions of rail could be reduced to close to zero

Intra-European flights on distances less than 1000 km are estimated to cause 28 MtCO2 every year without counting the non-CO2 impacts Seventeen of the 20 most frequented air routes in Europe are for distances less than 700 km In theory almost all of these journeys could be shifted to rail

The better European cities are connected by rail the easier it is to move trans-port away from high-polluting transport modes such as aviation and cars The more attractive and easy-to-use rail services are the more likely it is that people will want to switch

Rail can be a driver for European recovery post-Covid-19

The rail sector employs more than 23 million people (directly and indirectly) and creates a gross value added of euro143 billion of which euro66 billion is created directly by the sector This is larger than the gross value added of air transport The Eu rail supply industry accounts for around 20 of the global market

Rail infrastructure investments usually need more time but add to mid-term stability and growth expectations in the construction sector Some rail in-frastructure modernisation projects could be realised rapidlymdashfor example track switches bypasses European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) The investments needed for the realisation of the Trans-European Transport (TEN-T) core network for example is estimated to create euro45 trillion cumulated GDP and 13 million job-years EU-wide

19SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

Rail connects people cities and countries

In contrast to aviation rail not only services highly frequented core routes but also has a network that reaches into remote regions This network was much more dense 50 years ago both within countries and in border regions While many connections are not in use anymore because of massive divestment from rail many could easily be reinstalled A network of fast long-distance connections combined with dense regional services could make Europeans feel connected to and part of the EU

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20

Annex Specific recommendations for Poland Germany France and Spain

What can Poland do to boost European rail services

1 Create fair conditions for infrastructure access

The current system of infrastructure access charges is extremely asymmetric and strongly favours road over rail transport Rail currently pays infrastructure access charges on 100 of the railway network (including layovers or the use of railway stations) while road (bus) operators pay charges only on 1 of Pol-ish roads and individual drivers pay only for selected sections of motorways representing around 02 of the entire network Infrastructure charges of road and rail should be aligned in all market segmentsmdashincluding international long-distance transport

The second problem is the high level of track access charges for rail operators As a first step track access charges in Poland should be reduced to the level of costs directly induced by the train journey This would reduce charges from the current 60 of total infrastructure maintenance costs to 30 These charges should go entirely to the Railway Fund and thus contribute to the development and construction of new railway lines (as is the case with roads) Maintenance costs should be covered through the general state budget ultimately the sys-tem of charges for transport infrastructure should be dependent on the level of external costs (pollution noise traffic safety etc)

4

21

2 Invest in interoperable rolling stock for international connections including night trains

The lack of interoperable rolling stock is a key obstacle for the launch of new international long-distance connections Due to the very limited number of in-ternational connections and small passenger flows it is not a priority for carrier investment As a result international rail operatorsmdashespecially night trainsmdashhave access only to old wagons of poor quality In addition international trains waste time at borders due to the lack of multi-system locomotives which could run on different voltage and safety systems In Poland an estimated 40 locomo-tives and approximately 350 wagons are needed to operate connections with other Eu countries (Germany Czech Republic Slovakia and Lithuania) To im-prove the quality and frequency of international connections Poland should launch an investment programme for interoperable rolling stock This could also help the country negotiate with the European union on the co-financing of rolling stock or even an Eu-financed rolling stock pool Currently the long-dis-tance segment is the only area of passenger railway in Poland not covered by any EU support programme for rolling stock

3 Elimination of barriers to entry for new railway carriers

One of the basic problems of the international transport offer is its malad-justment to modern market needs Trains run infrequently tickets are much more expensive than domestic services and there are no discounts available on international trains The reason is that the organisation of connections is left to the incumbent railway carriers from individual countries and inflexi-ble procedures for their cooperation (including archaic regulations on tariffs and ticket sales) The example of low-cost airlines shows that an effective instrument for changing this situation is opening the market to competition In the case of commercial services full deregulation of the market should be achieved Where financial support (PSO) is required to maintain traffic compet-itive tenders for carrier selection should be obligatory in accordance with the provisions of the Fourth Railway Package In the case of Poland it is essential to review and clarify the rules for market access The current regulation leaves room for misinterpretation and is commonly used to block the entry of new entrants to the market which may exert positive pressure on the quality scope and accessibility of services for passengers

22 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Germany do to boost European rail services

1 Reduce track access charges for passenger trains

According to Eu law track access charges should generally only reflect direct costs (wear and tear costs) but Germany for instance makes use of an ex-emption and charges full costs for passenger trains (ie including infrastructure maintenance costs) The German track access charges are as a consequence five times as high as the mere direct costs would be (CERRE 2018) This results in very high access charges for train operators accounting for around a third of total operation costs The average costs per kilometre for long-distance trains rose by 18 between 2013 and 2018 For freight rail Germany has already decided to halve its track access charges The same approach to passenger rail could be a first step in incentivising more international services and to make rail more competitive with other transport modes The lost income for infra-structure managers would need to come from Germanyrsquos general budget

2 Establish a competent national authority for long-distance rail

Germany is the only Eu member state without a national contracting authority for rail transport When Germany reformed its rail system in the 1990s it es-tablished in each of the federal states (Bundeslaumlnder) at least one contract-ing authority responsible for organising and ordering regional rail passenger services and for determining public service obligations There are now 27 re-gional contracting authorities but no such authority at federal level Article 87e(4) of the German constitution obliges the federal government to guarantee non-regional services and provides the legal basis for establishing a national contracting authority by law Yet after more than two decades Germany has still not introduced such a law meaning that all long-distancetrains need to run solely on a commercial basis

This has led to gaps in the national network of long-distance trains and raises the question of how Germany can implement its so-called lsquoDeutschlandtaktrsquo

23ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

an integrated timetable for 2030 which includes routes not commercially via-ble It also makes it more difficult to run international trains through Germany Operating international trains is usually more costly because of higher coor-dination and administration costs and the need to buy or lease interoperable rolling stock In contrast to many other Eu member states Germany provides no support for long-distance trains in the form of public service obligations (PSOs) and also seems to object toother governments covering the German part of the route with PSOs as a recent feasibility study on a StockholmmdashBrus-sels night train revealed

3 Electrify border crossings to Poland and Czech Republic

Most international long-distance trains today run on electricity which is not only cleaner but also faster Only 61 of Germanyrsquos railway network is elec-trified and only 27 of its 57 border crossings into neighbouring countries are electrified Most non-electrified border crossings are on the eastern borders 13 into the Czech Republic and eight into Poland The lack of electrification usually means that locomotives need to be changed at the border adding to travel times and that many faster trains cannot run on those sections To better connect with the east Germany should urgently electrify the following sections

Q CottbusmdashForstmdashLegnica 138 km electrification would speed up services from Berlin to Wroclaw and krakow

Q DresdenmdashGoumlrlitzmdashZgorzelec 95 km electrification would improve train connections between Dresden and Wrocław

Q RegensburgmdashFurth im Wald 131 km electrification would speed up ser-vices from Munich to Prague to less than four hours

Q NuumlrnbergmdashSchirndingmdashCheb 140 km electrification would reduce travel time between Nuremberg and Prague to less than four hours

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24 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can France do to boost European rail services

1 Initiate a national strategy for a modal shift from air to rail

Massive modal shift is no longer an option but a necessity if France is to reach its targets of CO2 emissions Yet there is no long-term plan to reduce the number of flights taken for European travel Such a strategy is much needed as it would allow for long-term planning better coordination with the ERA and better coordination between long-distance and local trains

With an extensive network of railways lines already in place international con-nections do not require any major infrastructure works and couldbe created very quickly What is lacking is an integrated strategy to promote train over air for domestic and European travel France should set clear objectives in modal shift by 2030 and 2050 in accordance with national low carbon strategy (SNBC)

As long- and medium-distance train connections (both day and night ) can be an important asset to reach French climate targets France should create further incentives to boost this modal shift introducing VAT on European flights and reducing VAT on train travel Airport expansion projects in France should also be halted as they undermine efforts towards low emission mobility

2 Ease emergence of new players for long-distance connections

As the European rail market opens private and lsquohistoricrsquo incumbents will have the opportunity to operate new European connections This opening of the Eu-ropean train market will be an opportunity for new train companies to operate these trans-European connections To encourage lsquonewcomersrsquo France should guarantee that the services of these private companies will be able to set up their businesses and operate without obstacles set track access charges to its direct costs level and guarantee that newcomers will have access to public infrastructure and tracks

25ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

The opening of the market could also be an opportunity for incumbents such as SNCF As has been done with Thalys or Eurostar SNCF should initiate a part-nership with other national andor private companies to operate one or several of the European corridors that will be designed

It is quite possible to lsquostart smallrsquo operating only on the sections where infra-structure and rolling stock are compatible (ParismdashBerlin for example) and gradually extend the lines to reach full potential such as ParismdashWarsaw

3 Invest in night train rolling stock

Night trains can be a positive alternative to intra-Eu-ropean flights They can serve both domestic and international destinations However night trains in France have been on a downslide for several years The French government has recently announced that two new national train lines will be reopened This trend should be continued as the number of night trains gradually increases and night train lines extended to international destinations

For the night train renaissance France should in-vest euro150 million each year in rolling stock as the current stock is aging and far too limited This in-vestment will incentivise industries to produce new high-quality wagons designed for the night trains

At night some of the French track capacity is re-served for maintenance work and cannot be usedThis challenge can be overcome by starting with a small number of routes providing alternative routes when needed andor subsidising SNCF Reacute-seau so that maintenance work during the night can be lsquoun-optimisedrsquo that is take place over a longer period but without stopping traffic at night copy

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26 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Spain do to boost European rail services

1 Refurbish upgrade and finalise cross-border connections between Spain Portugal and France

Cross-border connections between Spain and its neighbouring countries need an urgent upgrade to allow smooth fast and convenient passenger trips be-tween major southern European cities In the Basque country the rail lines between Hendaye and Irun should be quickly refurbished to avoid unneces-sary stop-overs and guarantee the integration of French high-speed network (ParismdashBordeauxmdashHendaye) with the Spanish high-speed line in construction between DonostiaBilbao and Vittoria (known as Basque Y) and then towards Madrid and other Spanish cities

In Central Pyrenees the historical line between Pau (Nouvelle Aquitaine) and Zaragoza (Aragon) via the monumental Canfranc International station should be relaunched by building the missing 30 km between Bedous (France) and Canfranc (Spain) This final work will increase freight and passenger connectiv-ity improve cross-border security and boost the economy of isolated regions highly dependent on tourism agriculture and industry

On the Atlantic side the cities of Lisbon and Madrid as well as Santiago de Com-postela (Galicia) and Porto need to be integrated into a high-performance network based on the upgrade of outdated rail tracks This connection would ensure the better cohesion and connection of geographically remote and pe-ripheral cities and regions with the rest of the European capitals

2 Relaunch night train services and long-distance conventional lines

Most of the night time and conventional trains between major southern Euro-pean cities (such as MadridmdashParis BarcelonamdashParis MadridmdashBarcelona Ma-dridmdashLisbon) have been abandoned in the last decade due to aggressive and unfair competition from low-cost airlines and long-distance buses However the climate crisis is pushing citizens towards low-carbon transport such as rail

27ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

Spanish citizens deserve affordable night trains and renovated long-distance trains that allow them to save time carbon and money avoiding expensive night hotels at origin and destination Relaunching cross-regional train lines is also a way to support safe inclusive and sustainable tourism in Mediterranean countries dramatically affected by the Covid crisis and related lockdowns

3 Increase the use of the network by opening the market and levelling the playing field

Spain has the longest high-speed network in Europe (2675 km) but it is the least used with only 13 billion passenger-kilometres in 2018 As a comparison France transported 49 billion passenger-km on a high-speed network of almost equal length (2548 km) When looking at passenger and freight rail together use intensity of the Spanish rail network (34 trains per day per route km) is also very low compared to the rest of Europe (146 in the Netherlands 96 in the UK 78 in Germany 43 in France)

As a large part of the high-speed infrastructure has been financed by the Eu the poor performance of rail in Spain is clearly an inefficient use of public money that should be solved by appropriate regulation and incentives The new law for sustainable mobility in the making is a unique opportunity to reverse those negative trends and fix historical pitfalls The opening of the network to new rail operators planned in 2021 should also contribute to increasing the number of passengers without building any new infrastructure Finally the rules for transport operators should be fair between air road and trains by integrating the environmental and social externalities and incentivising cleaner alternatives

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28

References

BMVI (2020) Trans-Europe Express 20 httpswwwbmvideSharedDocsENDocumentsKinnovative-rail-transport-overnight-21-09-2020pdf__blob=publicationFile (accessed 26 November 2020)

CERRE (2018) Track Access ChargesmdashCase Study Germany httpscerreorgsitescerrefiles180509_CERRE_TrackAccessCharges_CaseStudy_Germa-ny_Finalpdf (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2018) Comprehensive analysis of the existing cross-bor-der rail transport connections and missing links on the internal EU borders httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-detail-publicatione68ec381-62f7-11e8-ab9c-01aa75ed71a1language-en (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2019) Remaining Challenges for EU-wide integrated ticketing and payment services httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-de-tail-publicationaf05b3eb-df43-11e9-9c4e-01aa75ed71a1 (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Court of Auditors (2018) A European high-speed rail network not a reality but an ineffective patchwork ECA Special Report httpswwwecaeuropaeuenPagesDocItemaspxdid=46398 (accessed 26 Novem-ber 2020)

Eurostat (2020) Air passenger transport between the main airports (data sets avia_par_fr avia_par_pl avia_par_de avia_par_es avia_par_b) httpseceuropaeueurostatwebmainhome (accessed 26 November 2020)

Independent Regulatorrsquos Group (IRG) (2020) 8th IRG-Rail Market Monitoring Report httpsirg-raileuirgdocumentsmarket-monitoring (accessed 26 November 2020)

International Railway Journal (2020) Spain urged to rebalance high-speed and suburban rail development 7 August 2020 httpswwwrailjournalcompassengerhigh-speedspain-urged-to-rebalance-high-speed-and-subur-ban-rail-investment (accessed 26 November 2020)

Page 9: Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe...Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe How the 2021 European Year of Rail can˜support the˜European Green Deal and a

9A EuROPEAN NET WORk

A few decades ago countries in Europe were still connected via many night train routes but most of these have been discontinued These night trains were important connections particularly for longer distances Austrian rail operator OumlBB has begun to revive some of the routes

In September 2020 the German government proposed reviving the TEE idea with eight core international routes together with a network of European night trains (BMVI 2020) The idea of a TEE20 is a good start to lsquoEuropeanisingrsquo train services and overcoming some of the major hur-dles The proposed network could then be ex-panded to reach further into SpainPortugal and south and eastern Europe

How can the EU launch new international rail ser-vices in the short term

Q Get started Agree on one or two corridors to start with (eg WarsawmdashBerlinmdashBrusselsmdashParis or AmsterdammdashParismdashBarcelona)

Q Corridor coordination Task the European Railway Agency (ERA) with coordinating rail ser-vices on these corridors to create a one-stop shop for train operators The agency could provide information on which rolling stock is required and the frequency and speed of the services It could facilitate coordination between infrastructure managers to ensure that services get the required track slots for fast and smooth journeys

Q Start-up support Determine those sections of the corridor that the service can run on a commercial basis and those where it needs subsidies (at least to get started) start-up support should be tied to the condi-tion that low-price tickets are available to make the service accessible to price-sensitive passengers

Q Vision Agree on a comprehensive network of European day and night trains with trains crossing external EU borders into the neighbourhood (especially to the uk Western Balkans Turkey ukraine Belarus and Russia)

A new NorthmdashSouth European line AmsterdammdashBarcelonaAnother test case could be a direct service between Amsterdam and Barcelona Currently there are trains making this journey in three segments Am-sterdammdashBrussels (2h30) BrusselsmdashLyon (3h45) and LyonmdashBarcelona (5h)mdasha total of 11 hours 15 minutes A direct train could connect Amsterdam and Barcelona in 10h15 Rolling stock is available for this route the Siemens Velaro train is certified in Netherlands Belgium France and Spain The route would have significant potential to shift travel from air to rail For example there are on average 6500 people flying from Paris to Barce-lona each day In 2019 almost 85 million people took a flight on the AmsterdammdashBarcelona route or smaller sections of it (Eurostat 2020)

WarsawBerlinHanover

Cologne

Frankfurt

KarlsruheFreiburg

Basel

Lyon

Milan

Bologna

Rome

Montpellier

PerpignanBarcelona

Mulhouse

Amsterdam

Short-term implementation of the TEE20

Sour

ce B

MVI

(202

0)

10

Easy booking Make rail data sharing mandatory

Booking international flights is very easy but buying international rail tickets is the opposite Passengers cannot easily find and compare all available con-nections and prices and bear the risk of delays on the way That needs to change travelling by rail needs to become at least as easy as travelling by plane Consumers should be able to book rail tickets for any connection in the Eu via one-stop shops In the best case this should integrate with other sustainable modes for the first and last miles of the passengerrsquos journey such asbuses trams shared bikes etc

It is not possible to book a train ticket FrankfurtmdashBarcelona onlineIf you try to buy a train ticket from Frankfurt to Barcelona this is what you find

Q Deutsche Bahn shows two connections (fastest is 13h04) that reach Barce-lona within the same day but no tickets are sold

Q SNCF shows no connections Q RENFE shows no connections and this information is available only in Spanish Q Trainline offers tickets for three connections which are different from the

Deutsche Bahn connections and require at least 25 hours of travelling Q Omio shows no connection

The only possible ways to book the trip from Frankfurt to Barcelona are to buy tickets for segments of the journey from the different operatorsrsquo websites con-tact an offline travel agent or queue up at one of the few remaining Deutsche Bahn ticket sale desksAs a comparison Google Flights search shows for the same day approximately 60 connections even during the Covid-19 pandemic

2PRIORITY

11

The Eu has trusted the rail sector to find its own solution but that sector has delayed progress for years Technical solu-tions for integrating information from different train providers are available Independent online ticket vendors like Trainline Omio etc try to assemble tickets from different operators but their websites do not yet show all available rail connections and ticket offers This is because rail operators are reluctant to share all the necessary data with other operators or with independent ticket vendors

The EU needs to require rail operators to share all nec-essary data for easy booking of international rail trips European law currently obliges transport operators to share only some basic data such as static travel and traffic data (19262017 Delegated Regulation of the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) Directive) The regulation does not cover fare data and also leaves it open to member states to require dynamic travel and traffic data (eg information on platform numbers and changes accurate seat plans real-time delays and cancellations predicted arrival time) These data are critical for a seamless journey and for passengers to be able to find alternative connections in case of disruptions (European Commission 2019)

Finland shows the way for multimodal ticketingFinland is the European frontrunner when it comes to multimodal ticketing The 2018 Transport Act obliges all mo-bility service providers to grant access to essential data sales interfaces and reservation interfaces via an Applica-tion Programming Interface (API) The law thus covers not only rail but also public road services Mobility service providers are obliged to cooperate and to enter into agreements based on criteria set out in the Transport Act The Finnish Transport Agency is responsible for monitoring the supply and demand of mobility services and produces statistics from the data ob-tained (European Commission 2019)

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12 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

Some member states move beyond that regulation while others implement only the absolute minimum resulting in legal fragmentation across the EU In Germany for instance Deutsche Bahn (DB) data on timetables and planned disruptions is open to ticket vendors but not data on real-time platforms real-time delays and cancellations or next-day information on delays and cancellation (which is required for claiming compensation)

The EU needs to establish a comprehensive multimodal legal framework for booking ticketing and payment services In its 2021 Work Programme the European Commission announced it would revise the ITS Directive and propose a multimodal ticketing initiative This initiative needs to fulfil the fol-lowing criteria

Q The framework will make access to static and dynamic data manda-tory (including routes stops timetables prices and the availability and accessibility of services)

Q Rail operators will be required to share data via an open Application Programming Interface (API) which must be in machine readable for-mat Many operators have so far failed to build interfaces into their own booking systems

Q The framework should allow ticket vendors to assemble their own discount and promotion packages to compete in an open ticketing market

The EU needs to establish rules to guaran-tee that international rail passengers arrive at their final destination and can hop on the next train in case of missed train connections Rail pas-sengers often need to buy individual tickets from different rail operators for a multi-leg journeymdashand under current rules passengers bear the risk if a connection is missed Rail operators are cur-rently not obliged to sell so-called lsquothrough ticketsrsquo that is one ticket contract for multi-leg journey with a guarantee to arrive at the final destination Also independent ticket vendors that assemble tickets from various operators do not offer such an lsquoarrival guaranteersquo As there are only a few direct interna-tional train connections between major European cities this is a concern for passengers

The BerlinmdashBrussels roulettemdash no lsquohop on the next trainrsquoWhen travelling by train from Berlin to Brussels passengers need to change trains in Cologne Fre-quently the ICE train (operated by DB) from Berlin to Cologne is delayed and travellers miss their con-nection From Cologne to Brussels there is only one ICE train every two hours but a Thalys train several times a day in the lsquointerim slotsrsquo Yet the DB traveller is not allowed to take the Thalys trains to Brussels earlier than the next ICE train because there is no lsquohop on the next trainrsquo agreement between Thalys and DB meaning travellers oftenneed 08h49 in-stead of 06h49 for the trip

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13EASY BOOkING

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14

Smart spending Use EU money to improve rail infrastructure capacity and connectivity

EU funding (cohesion funding Connecting Europe Facility Recovery and Resil-ience Facility) makes up an important share of overall transport infrastructure funding especially in the new member states Yet in the past Eu transport funding has not always been used wisely Too much funding went into road and airports and too little into rail This is especially the case for EU cohesion fund-ing around 50 of transport cohesion funding goes into road and only 25 into rail projects Funding decisions are based on plans prepared by the

respective member state and negotiated between member states and the European Commission

European Investment Bank (EIB) transport lending is still supporting unsustainable infrastructure such as airports and new motorway projects Transport is the single largest sector of EIB activity accounting for about 1 in every 4 euros invested by the bank The bank is however in the process of revising both its climate (2020) and transport policies (2021)

Too much money also goes into mega-projects with exploding costs and long delays The Eu-ropean Court of Auditors (2018) cautioned that projects were often chosen based on political de-cisions and not on thorough cost-benefit analyses

3

Only one out of seven border crossings between Germany and Poland is electrifiedThere were once 24 rail links between Germany and Poland of which only seven remain in operation Yet only the border crossing at Frankfurt (Oder) is electrified The trains from Berlin to Warsaw or to Gdansk operate on this line The remaining six border crossings are not yet electrified meaning that trains need to run on diesel The CottbusmdashLegnica link is particularly relevant to connect Berlin to densely populated Southern Poland (Wroclaw Silesia Krakow) To electrify this 138 km link would cost approximately euro100 million but could reduce travel time between Berlin and Wroclaw from currently 45 hours to only 3 hours because Eurocity trains could take a more direct route (currently going through Frankfurt (Oder)) For comparison before the 2nd World War travel time was only 25 hours

PRIORITY

15

The evaluated high-speed projects took 16 years on average cost on average euro25 million per track km but often do not deliver on expectations average speeds rarely reach 200 kmh and only few lines transported more than nine million passengers per year (the benchmark for a successful high-speed line) In contrast small-scale interventions with greater European potential are of-ten not implemented This can be electrification constructing a second track or bypasses to increase capacity and speed or closing smaller missing links on the border

The European Court of Auditors also noted a lack of coordination of cross-border infrastructure projects Member states take a national perspec-tive and do not prioritise closing cross-border gaps This means that infrastructure might have been completed on one side of the border but delayed by years on the other side

The EU should ensure that EU funding

Q Supports modal shift towards rail In the negotiations of the Operational Programmes for Cohesion funding the European Commis-sion should ensure that more budget goes to rail than to road and no new roads are financedin the old member states as they al-ready have a sufficiently dense road network The European Commission should also ask member states to present modal shift tar-gets if they want to access funds for trans-port under the Recovery and Resilience Facility The EIB should in the upcoming review of its Transport Strategy decide to stop funding any airport infrastructure or road network expansion and instead increase funding for electric cross-border rail projects and rolling stock

Q Prioritises rail projects essential for intra-European rail services Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funding should only go into projects that are key to cross-border connectivity (eg for key corridors) and should focus more on low-hanging fruits than on new mega-projects Such inter-ventions should be based on sound cost-benefit analysis When evaluating

Spain has only one international long-distance rail lineSpain has invested massively into high-speed lines over the last decades with euro14 billion (25 of total investment) coming from Eu funds (Inter-national Railway Journal 2020) Yet there is only one international high-speed rail line connecting Barcelona with Montpellier in France The tracks are underused with only two services per day For regional services there are additional border crossings in Portbou-Perpignan (Mediterranean coast) IrunHendaye (Atlantic coast) and Puigcerda (Pyrenees) but none of them is serviced frequently Another difficulty on these regional lines is that trains need to change between standard and Ibe-rian track gauge at the borderThe connection between Spain and Portugal is even worse a rail trip from Madrid to Lisbon (625 km) takes 10h50 and requires three changes as only regional lines operate across borders There are border crossings in Badajoz-Elvas Fregenada-Bar-ca de Alva and Vigo-Porto but they are under-used The only long-distance line to Portugal is a night train from HendayeIrun to Lisbon (currently sus-pended due to Covid-19) The TEN-T network plan foresees a high-speed connection between Madrid and Lisbon as part of the core network but the project is currently not being pursued by either the Portuguese or the Spanish government

16 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

member statesrsquo operational programmes for cohesion fundingrecovery funding the European Commission should suggest to member states that they include rail projects that are key tothe functioning of a European rail network

Q Promotes infrastructure interventions which are accompanied by transformative measures When accessing EU rail infrastructure funding member states should be required to present accompanying policy measures which ensure that the infrastructure is used efficiently

Other policy interventions for supporting European rail

Apart from the above mentioned priorities the EU and member states should address the following obstacles

Q International rail has no strong voice in the current system because member states and incumbent railway operators tend to focus on their own national markets There is also a lack of coordination of infrastructure managers across borders The EU should strengthen the European Rail Agency (ERA) as a traffic control and coordination authority for international rail transport The ERA should be entrusted with forecasting demand assessing the level of required services (destination frequency speed) and allocating capacities The ERA could identify routes that may be of interest to travellers but which are not yet fully exploited and could make this information available to train operators It could also determine which sections of the desired network services would be

Examples of bordercrossings between Spain France Belgium Germany and Poland that need urgent attention

Member States involved Border crossing Important for Required action

Germany mdash Poland Cottbus mdash Forst mdash  Legnica

connecting Berlin with southern Poland electrification of 138 km

France mdash Germany Colmar mdash Freiburg connecting regions build 1 km bridge

Spain mdash France Astigarraga mdash IrunthinspHendaye mdash Bayonne

connecting Bordeaux to northern Spain

upgrade cross-border section

Spain mdash France (Pau) Bedous mdash Canfranc (Zaragoza)

Reconnect central corridor in the Pyrenees

Refurbishment of 30 km railtrack on French side

17SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

commercially viable and where public service obligations (PSOs) would be needed in order to guarantee a service

Q Night train operators and new rail operators have an especially hard time finding trains that can operate in more than one country The second-hand market for interoperable rolling stock and night trains is limited ordering an entire new fleet is prohibitively expensive and no func-tioning leasing market is in place for this specific segment The Eu and member states should help to find new creative finance mechanisms for overcoming the lack of rolling stock and consider establishing a publicly managed rolling stock pool

Q Airlines pay no tax on kerosene receive 85 of allowances of the European Emissions Trading Scheme free of charge and pay no VAT on international tickets This creates an uneven playing field between aviation and rail The European Commission has announced it will review both the EU Energy Taxation Directive and the EU ETS Directive in 2021 It is crucial to use this opportunity to introduce a kerosene tax in-troduce full auctioning for aviation allowances in the EU ETS and create a stronger price for emission allowances

Q Track access charges are prohibitively high in some EU member states EU Regulation suggests that charges should cover only marginal costs but some member states ask for much higher mark ups for example on highly frequented routes or during rush hours This creates an unfair advantage for road transport which pays only infrastructure charges on approximately 3 of the Eu road network For freight rail some member states have reduced charges but not so for passenger rail EU member states should agree to reduce track access charges to direct cost levels This would increase the use of tracks and could bring higher in-come for infrastructure managers in return During the transition period alternative funding to cover losses of infrastructure managers could come from ETS auctioning revenues

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18 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

Why is this important

Rail can help the EU to achieve its climate targets

Rail is the cleanest mode of transport A flight from Paris to Berlin causes at least six times the CO2 emissions of a train journey Counting the also non-CO2 impacts of aviation the flight is responsible for 18 times the climate impact of a rail trip With further electrification and decarbonisation of power generation the carbon emissions of rail could be reduced to close to zero

Intra-European flights on distances less than 1000 km are estimated to cause 28 MtCO2 every year without counting the non-CO2 impacts Seventeen of the 20 most frequented air routes in Europe are for distances less than 700 km In theory almost all of these journeys could be shifted to rail

The better European cities are connected by rail the easier it is to move trans-port away from high-polluting transport modes such as aviation and cars The more attractive and easy-to-use rail services are the more likely it is that people will want to switch

Rail can be a driver for European recovery post-Covid-19

The rail sector employs more than 23 million people (directly and indirectly) and creates a gross value added of euro143 billion of which euro66 billion is created directly by the sector This is larger than the gross value added of air transport The Eu rail supply industry accounts for around 20 of the global market

Rail infrastructure investments usually need more time but add to mid-term stability and growth expectations in the construction sector Some rail in-frastructure modernisation projects could be realised rapidlymdashfor example track switches bypasses European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) The investments needed for the realisation of the Trans-European Transport (TEN-T) core network for example is estimated to create euro45 trillion cumulated GDP and 13 million job-years EU-wide

19SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

Rail connects people cities and countries

In contrast to aviation rail not only services highly frequented core routes but also has a network that reaches into remote regions This network was much more dense 50 years ago both within countries and in border regions While many connections are not in use anymore because of massive divestment from rail many could easily be reinstalled A network of fast long-distance connections combined with dense regional services could make Europeans feel connected to and part of the EU

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20

Annex Specific recommendations for Poland Germany France and Spain

What can Poland do to boost European rail services

1 Create fair conditions for infrastructure access

The current system of infrastructure access charges is extremely asymmetric and strongly favours road over rail transport Rail currently pays infrastructure access charges on 100 of the railway network (including layovers or the use of railway stations) while road (bus) operators pay charges only on 1 of Pol-ish roads and individual drivers pay only for selected sections of motorways representing around 02 of the entire network Infrastructure charges of road and rail should be aligned in all market segmentsmdashincluding international long-distance transport

The second problem is the high level of track access charges for rail operators As a first step track access charges in Poland should be reduced to the level of costs directly induced by the train journey This would reduce charges from the current 60 of total infrastructure maintenance costs to 30 These charges should go entirely to the Railway Fund and thus contribute to the development and construction of new railway lines (as is the case with roads) Maintenance costs should be covered through the general state budget ultimately the sys-tem of charges for transport infrastructure should be dependent on the level of external costs (pollution noise traffic safety etc)

4

21

2 Invest in interoperable rolling stock for international connections including night trains

The lack of interoperable rolling stock is a key obstacle for the launch of new international long-distance connections Due to the very limited number of in-ternational connections and small passenger flows it is not a priority for carrier investment As a result international rail operatorsmdashespecially night trainsmdashhave access only to old wagons of poor quality In addition international trains waste time at borders due to the lack of multi-system locomotives which could run on different voltage and safety systems In Poland an estimated 40 locomo-tives and approximately 350 wagons are needed to operate connections with other Eu countries (Germany Czech Republic Slovakia and Lithuania) To im-prove the quality and frequency of international connections Poland should launch an investment programme for interoperable rolling stock This could also help the country negotiate with the European union on the co-financing of rolling stock or even an Eu-financed rolling stock pool Currently the long-dis-tance segment is the only area of passenger railway in Poland not covered by any EU support programme for rolling stock

3 Elimination of barriers to entry for new railway carriers

One of the basic problems of the international transport offer is its malad-justment to modern market needs Trains run infrequently tickets are much more expensive than domestic services and there are no discounts available on international trains The reason is that the organisation of connections is left to the incumbent railway carriers from individual countries and inflexi-ble procedures for their cooperation (including archaic regulations on tariffs and ticket sales) The example of low-cost airlines shows that an effective instrument for changing this situation is opening the market to competition In the case of commercial services full deregulation of the market should be achieved Where financial support (PSO) is required to maintain traffic compet-itive tenders for carrier selection should be obligatory in accordance with the provisions of the Fourth Railway Package In the case of Poland it is essential to review and clarify the rules for market access The current regulation leaves room for misinterpretation and is commonly used to block the entry of new entrants to the market which may exert positive pressure on the quality scope and accessibility of services for passengers

22 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Germany do to boost European rail services

1 Reduce track access charges for passenger trains

According to Eu law track access charges should generally only reflect direct costs (wear and tear costs) but Germany for instance makes use of an ex-emption and charges full costs for passenger trains (ie including infrastructure maintenance costs) The German track access charges are as a consequence five times as high as the mere direct costs would be (CERRE 2018) This results in very high access charges for train operators accounting for around a third of total operation costs The average costs per kilometre for long-distance trains rose by 18 between 2013 and 2018 For freight rail Germany has already decided to halve its track access charges The same approach to passenger rail could be a first step in incentivising more international services and to make rail more competitive with other transport modes The lost income for infra-structure managers would need to come from Germanyrsquos general budget

2 Establish a competent national authority for long-distance rail

Germany is the only Eu member state without a national contracting authority for rail transport When Germany reformed its rail system in the 1990s it es-tablished in each of the federal states (Bundeslaumlnder) at least one contract-ing authority responsible for organising and ordering regional rail passenger services and for determining public service obligations There are now 27 re-gional contracting authorities but no such authority at federal level Article 87e(4) of the German constitution obliges the federal government to guarantee non-regional services and provides the legal basis for establishing a national contracting authority by law Yet after more than two decades Germany has still not introduced such a law meaning that all long-distancetrains need to run solely on a commercial basis

This has led to gaps in the national network of long-distance trains and raises the question of how Germany can implement its so-called lsquoDeutschlandtaktrsquo

23ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

an integrated timetable for 2030 which includes routes not commercially via-ble It also makes it more difficult to run international trains through Germany Operating international trains is usually more costly because of higher coor-dination and administration costs and the need to buy or lease interoperable rolling stock In contrast to many other Eu member states Germany provides no support for long-distance trains in the form of public service obligations (PSOs) and also seems to object toother governments covering the German part of the route with PSOs as a recent feasibility study on a StockholmmdashBrus-sels night train revealed

3 Electrify border crossings to Poland and Czech Republic

Most international long-distance trains today run on electricity which is not only cleaner but also faster Only 61 of Germanyrsquos railway network is elec-trified and only 27 of its 57 border crossings into neighbouring countries are electrified Most non-electrified border crossings are on the eastern borders 13 into the Czech Republic and eight into Poland The lack of electrification usually means that locomotives need to be changed at the border adding to travel times and that many faster trains cannot run on those sections To better connect with the east Germany should urgently electrify the following sections

Q CottbusmdashForstmdashLegnica 138 km electrification would speed up services from Berlin to Wroclaw and krakow

Q DresdenmdashGoumlrlitzmdashZgorzelec 95 km electrification would improve train connections between Dresden and Wrocław

Q RegensburgmdashFurth im Wald 131 km electrification would speed up ser-vices from Munich to Prague to less than four hours

Q NuumlrnbergmdashSchirndingmdashCheb 140 km electrification would reduce travel time between Nuremberg and Prague to less than four hours

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24 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can France do to boost European rail services

1 Initiate a national strategy for a modal shift from air to rail

Massive modal shift is no longer an option but a necessity if France is to reach its targets of CO2 emissions Yet there is no long-term plan to reduce the number of flights taken for European travel Such a strategy is much needed as it would allow for long-term planning better coordination with the ERA and better coordination between long-distance and local trains

With an extensive network of railways lines already in place international con-nections do not require any major infrastructure works and couldbe created very quickly What is lacking is an integrated strategy to promote train over air for domestic and European travel France should set clear objectives in modal shift by 2030 and 2050 in accordance with national low carbon strategy (SNBC)

As long- and medium-distance train connections (both day and night ) can be an important asset to reach French climate targets France should create further incentives to boost this modal shift introducing VAT on European flights and reducing VAT on train travel Airport expansion projects in France should also be halted as they undermine efforts towards low emission mobility

2 Ease emergence of new players for long-distance connections

As the European rail market opens private and lsquohistoricrsquo incumbents will have the opportunity to operate new European connections This opening of the Eu-ropean train market will be an opportunity for new train companies to operate these trans-European connections To encourage lsquonewcomersrsquo France should guarantee that the services of these private companies will be able to set up their businesses and operate without obstacles set track access charges to its direct costs level and guarantee that newcomers will have access to public infrastructure and tracks

25ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

The opening of the market could also be an opportunity for incumbents such as SNCF As has been done with Thalys or Eurostar SNCF should initiate a part-nership with other national andor private companies to operate one or several of the European corridors that will be designed

It is quite possible to lsquostart smallrsquo operating only on the sections where infra-structure and rolling stock are compatible (ParismdashBerlin for example) and gradually extend the lines to reach full potential such as ParismdashWarsaw

3 Invest in night train rolling stock

Night trains can be a positive alternative to intra-Eu-ropean flights They can serve both domestic and international destinations However night trains in France have been on a downslide for several years The French government has recently announced that two new national train lines will be reopened This trend should be continued as the number of night trains gradually increases and night train lines extended to international destinations

For the night train renaissance France should in-vest euro150 million each year in rolling stock as the current stock is aging and far too limited This in-vestment will incentivise industries to produce new high-quality wagons designed for the night trains

At night some of the French track capacity is re-served for maintenance work and cannot be usedThis challenge can be overcome by starting with a small number of routes providing alternative routes when needed andor subsidising SNCF Reacute-seau so that maintenance work during the night can be lsquoun-optimisedrsquo that is take place over a longer period but without stopping traffic at night copy

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26 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Spain do to boost European rail services

1 Refurbish upgrade and finalise cross-border connections between Spain Portugal and France

Cross-border connections between Spain and its neighbouring countries need an urgent upgrade to allow smooth fast and convenient passenger trips be-tween major southern European cities In the Basque country the rail lines between Hendaye and Irun should be quickly refurbished to avoid unneces-sary stop-overs and guarantee the integration of French high-speed network (ParismdashBordeauxmdashHendaye) with the Spanish high-speed line in construction between DonostiaBilbao and Vittoria (known as Basque Y) and then towards Madrid and other Spanish cities

In Central Pyrenees the historical line between Pau (Nouvelle Aquitaine) and Zaragoza (Aragon) via the monumental Canfranc International station should be relaunched by building the missing 30 km between Bedous (France) and Canfranc (Spain) This final work will increase freight and passenger connectiv-ity improve cross-border security and boost the economy of isolated regions highly dependent on tourism agriculture and industry

On the Atlantic side the cities of Lisbon and Madrid as well as Santiago de Com-postela (Galicia) and Porto need to be integrated into a high-performance network based on the upgrade of outdated rail tracks This connection would ensure the better cohesion and connection of geographically remote and pe-ripheral cities and regions with the rest of the European capitals

2 Relaunch night train services and long-distance conventional lines

Most of the night time and conventional trains between major southern Euro-pean cities (such as MadridmdashParis BarcelonamdashParis MadridmdashBarcelona Ma-dridmdashLisbon) have been abandoned in the last decade due to aggressive and unfair competition from low-cost airlines and long-distance buses However the climate crisis is pushing citizens towards low-carbon transport such as rail

27ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

Spanish citizens deserve affordable night trains and renovated long-distance trains that allow them to save time carbon and money avoiding expensive night hotels at origin and destination Relaunching cross-regional train lines is also a way to support safe inclusive and sustainable tourism in Mediterranean countries dramatically affected by the Covid crisis and related lockdowns

3 Increase the use of the network by opening the market and levelling the playing field

Spain has the longest high-speed network in Europe (2675 km) but it is the least used with only 13 billion passenger-kilometres in 2018 As a comparison France transported 49 billion passenger-km on a high-speed network of almost equal length (2548 km) When looking at passenger and freight rail together use intensity of the Spanish rail network (34 trains per day per route km) is also very low compared to the rest of Europe (146 in the Netherlands 96 in the UK 78 in Germany 43 in France)

As a large part of the high-speed infrastructure has been financed by the Eu the poor performance of rail in Spain is clearly an inefficient use of public money that should be solved by appropriate regulation and incentives The new law for sustainable mobility in the making is a unique opportunity to reverse those negative trends and fix historical pitfalls The opening of the network to new rail operators planned in 2021 should also contribute to increasing the number of passengers without building any new infrastructure Finally the rules for transport operators should be fair between air road and trains by integrating the environmental and social externalities and incentivising cleaner alternatives

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References

BMVI (2020) Trans-Europe Express 20 httpswwwbmvideSharedDocsENDocumentsKinnovative-rail-transport-overnight-21-09-2020pdf__blob=publicationFile (accessed 26 November 2020)

CERRE (2018) Track Access ChargesmdashCase Study Germany httpscerreorgsitescerrefiles180509_CERRE_TrackAccessCharges_CaseStudy_Germa-ny_Finalpdf (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2018) Comprehensive analysis of the existing cross-bor-der rail transport connections and missing links on the internal EU borders httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-detail-publicatione68ec381-62f7-11e8-ab9c-01aa75ed71a1language-en (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2019) Remaining Challenges for EU-wide integrated ticketing and payment services httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-de-tail-publicationaf05b3eb-df43-11e9-9c4e-01aa75ed71a1 (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Court of Auditors (2018) A European high-speed rail network not a reality but an ineffective patchwork ECA Special Report httpswwwecaeuropaeuenPagesDocItemaspxdid=46398 (accessed 26 Novem-ber 2020)

Eurostat (2020) Air passenger transport between the main airports (data sets avia_par_fr avia_par_pl avia_par_de avia_par_es avia_par_b) httpseceuropaeueurostatwebmainhome (accessed 26 November 2020)

Independent Regulatorrsquos Group (IRG) (2020) 8th IRG-Rail Market Monitoring Report httpsirg-raileuirgdocumentsmarket-monitoring (accessed 26 November 2020)

International Railway Journal (2020) Spain urged to rebalance high-speed and suburban rail development 7 August 2020 httpswwwrailjournalcompassengerhigh-speedspain-urged-to-rebalance-high-speed-and-subur-ban-rail-investment (accessed 26 November 2020)

Page 10: Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe...Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe How the 2021 European Year of Rail can˜support the˜European Green Deal and a

10

Easy booking Make rail data sharing mandatory

Booking international flights is very easy but buying international rail tickets is the opposite Passengers cannot easily find and compare all available con-nections and prices and bear the risk of delays on the way That needs to change travelling by rail needs to become at least as easy as travelling by plane Consumers should be able to book rail tickets for any connection in the Eu via one-stop shops In the best case this should integrate with other sustainable modes for the first and last miles of the passengerrsquos journey such asbuses trams shared bikes etc

It is not possible to book a train ticket FrankfurtmdashBarcelona onlineIf you try to buy a train ticket from Frankfurt to Barcelona this is what you find

Q Deutsche Bahn shows two connections (fastest is 13h04) that reach Barce-lona within the same day but no tickets are sold

Q SNCF shows no connections Q RENFE shows no connections and this information is available only in Spanish Q Trainline offers tickets for three connections which are different from the

Deutsche Bahn connections and require at least 25 hours of travelling Q Omio shows no connection

The only possible ways to book the trip from Frankfurt to Barcelona are to buy tickets for segments of the journey from the different operatorsrsquo websites con-tact an offline travel agent or queue up at one of the few remaining Deutsche Bahn ticket sale desksAs a comparison Google Flights search shows for the same day approximately 60 connections even during the Covid-19 pandemic

2PRIORITY

11

The Eu has trusted the rail sector to find its own solution but that sector has delayed progress for years Technical solu-tions for integrating information from different train providers are available Independent online ticket vendors like Trainline Omio etc try to assemble tickets from different operators but their websites do not yet show all available rail connections and ticket offers This is because rail operators are reluctant to share all the necessary data with other operators or with independent ticket vendors

The EU needs to require rail operators to share all nec-essary data for easy booking of international rail trips European law currently obliges transport operators to share only some basic data such as static travel and traffic data (19262017 Delegated Regulation of the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) Directive) The regulation does not cover fare data and also leaves it open to member states to require dynamic travel and traffic data (eg information on platform numbers and changes accurate seat plans real-time delays and cancellations predicted arrival time) These data are critical for a seamless journey and for passengers to be able to find alternative connections in case of disruptions (European Commission 2019)

Finland shows the way for multimodal ticketingFinland is the European frontrunner when it comes to multimodal ticketing The 2018 Transport Act obliges all mo-bility service providers to grant access to essential data sales interfaces and reservation interfaces via an Applica-tion Programming Interface (API) The law thus covers not only rail but also public road services Mobility service providers are obliged to cooperate and to enter into agreements based on criteria set out in the Transport Act The Finnish Transport Agency is responsible for monitoring the supply and demand of mobility services and produces statistics from the data ob-tained (European Commission 2019)

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12 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

Some member states move beyond that regulation while others implement only the absolute minimum resulting in legal fragmentation across the EU In Germany for instance Deutsche Bahn (DB) data on timetables and planned disruptions is open to ticket vendors but not data on real-time platforms real-time delays and cancellations or next-day information on delays and cancellation (which is required for claiming compensation)

The EU needs to establish a comprehensive multimodal legal framework for booking ticketing and payment services In its 2021 Work Programme the European Commission announced it would revise the ITS Directive and propose a multimodal ticketing initiative This initiative needs to fulfil the fol-lowing criteria

Q The framework will make access to static and dynamic data manda-tory (including routes stops timetables prices and the availability and accessibility of services)

Q Rail operators will be required to share data via an open Application Programming Interface (API) which must be in machine readable for-mat Many operators have so far failed to build interfaces into their own booking systems

Q The framework should allow ticket vendors to assemble their own discount and promotion packages to compete in an open ticketing market

The EU needs to establish rules to guaran-tee that international rail passengers arrive at their final destination and can hop on the next train in case of missed train connections Rail pas-sengers often need to buy individual tickets from different rail operators for a multi-leg journeymdashand under current rules passengers bear the risk if a connection is missed Rail operators are cur-rently not obliged to sell so-called lsquothrough ticketsrsquo that is one ticket contract for multi-leg journey with a guarantee to arrive at the final destination Also independent ticket vendors that assemble tickets from various operators do not offer such an lsquoarrival guaranteersquo As there are only a few direct interna-tional train connections between major European cities this is a concern for passengers

The BerlinmdashBrussels roulettemdash no lsquohop on the next trainrsquoWhen travelling by train from Berlin to Brussels passengers need to change trains in Cologne Fre-quently the ICE train (operated by DB) from Berlin to Cologne is delayed and travellers miss their con-nection From Cologne to Brussels there is only one ICE train every two hours but a Thalys train several times a day in the lsquointerim slotsrsquo Yet the DB traveller is not allowed to take the Thalys trains to Brussels earlier than the next ICE train because there is no lsquohop on the next trainrsquo agreement between Thalys and DB meaning travellers oftenneed 08h49 in-stead of 06h49 for the trip

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13EASY BOOkING

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14

Smart spending Use EU money to improve rail infrastructure capacity and connectivity

EU funding (cohesion funding Connecting Europe Facility Recovery and Resil-ience Facility) makes up an important share of overall transport infrastructure funding especially in the new member states Yet in the past Eu transport funding has not always been used wisely Too much funding went into road and airports and too little into rail This is especially the case for EU cohesion fund-ing around 50 of transport cohesion funding goes into road and only 25 into rail projects Funding decisions are based on plans prepared by the

respective member state and negotiated between member states and the European Commission

European Investment Bank (EIB) transport lending is still supporting unsustainable infrastructure such as airports and new motorway projects Transport is the single largest sector of EIB activity accounting for about 1 in every 4 euros invested by the bank The bank is however in the process of revising both its climate (2020) and transport policies (2021)

Too much money also goes into mega-projects with exploding costs and long delays The Eu-ropean Court of Auditors (2018) cautioned that projects were often chosen based on political de-cisions and not on thorough cost-benefit analyses

3

Only one out of seven border crossings between Germany and Poland is electrifiedThere were once 24 rail links between Germany and Poland of which only seven remain in operation Yet only the border crossing at Frankfurt (Oder) is electrified The trains from Berlin to Warsaw or to Gdansk operate on this line The remaining six border crossings are not yet electrified meaning that trains need to run on diesel The CottbusmdashLegnica link is particularly relevant to connect Berlin to densely populated Southern Poland (Wroclaw Silesia Krakow) To electrify this 138 km link would cost approximately euro100 million but could reduce travel time between Berlin and Wroclaw from currently 45 hours to only 3 hours because Eurocity trains could take a more direct route (currently going through Frankfurt (Oder)) For comparison before the 2nd World War travel time was only 25 hours

PRIORITY

15

The evaluated high-speed projects took 16 years on average cost on average euro25 million per track km but often do not deliver on expectations average speeds rarely reach 200 kmh and only few lines transported more than nine million passengers per year (the benchmark for a successful high-speed line) In contrast small-scale interventions with greater European potential are of-ten not implemented This can be electrification constructing a second track or bypasses to increase capacity and speed or closing smaller missing links on the border

The European Court of Auditors also noted a lack of coordination of cross-border infrastructure projects Member states take a national perspec-tive and do not prioritise closing cross-border gaps This means that infrastructure might have been completed on one side of the border but delayed by years on the other side

The EU should ensure that EU funding

Q Supports modal shift towards rail In the negotiations of the Operational Programmes for Cohesion funding the European Commis-sion should ensure that more budget goes to rail than to road and no new roads are financedin the old member states as they al-ready have a sufficiently dense road network The European Commission should also ask member states to present modal shift tar-gets if they want to access funds for trans-port under the Recovery and Resilience Facility The EIB should in the upcoming review of its Transport Strategy decide to stop funding any airport infrastructure or road network expansion and instead increase funding for electric cross-border rail projects and rolling stock

Q Prioritises rail projects essential for intra-European rail services Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funding should only go into projects that are key to cross-border connectivity (eg for key corridors) and should focus more on low-hanging fruits than on new mega-projects Such inter-ventions should be based on sound cost-benefit analysis When evaluating

Spain has only one international long-distance rail lineSpain has invested massively into high-speed lines over the last decades with euro14 billion (25 of total investment) coming from Eu funds (Inter-national Railway Journal 2020) Yet there is only one international high-speed rail line connecting Barcelona with Montpellier in France The tracks are underused with only two services per day For regional services there are additional border crossings in Portbou-Perpignan (Mediterranean coast) IrunHendaye (Atlantic coast) and Puigcerda (Pyrenees) but none of them is serviced frequently Another difficulty on these regional lines is that trains need to change between standard and Ibe-rian track gauge at the borderThe connection between Spain and Portugal is even worse a rail trip from Madrid to Lisbon (625 km) takes 10h50 and requires three changes as only regional lines operate across borders There are border crossings in Badajoz-Elvas Fregenada-Bar-ca de Alva and Vigo-Porto but they are under-used The only long-distance line to Portugal is a night train from HendayeIrun to Lisbon (currently sus-pended due to Covid-19) The TEN-T network plan foresees a high-speed connection between Madrid and Lisbon as part of the core network but the project is currently not being pursued by either the Portuguese or the Spanish government

16 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

member statesrsquo operational programmes for cohesion fundingrecovery funding the European Commission should suggest to member states that they include rail projects that are key tothe functioning of a European rail network

Q Promotes infrastructure interventions which are accompanied by transformative measures When accessing EU rail infrastructure funding member states should be required to present accompanying policy measures which ensure that the infrastructure is used efficiently

Other policy interventions for supporting European rail

Apart from the above mentioned priorities the EU and member states should address the following obstacles

Q International rail has no strong voice in the current system because member states and incumbent railway operators tend to focus on their own national markets There is also a lack of coordination of infrastructure managers across borders The EU should strengthen the European Rail Agency (ERA) as a traffic control and coordination authority for international rail transport The ERA should be entrusted with forecasting demand assessing the level of required services (destination frequency speed) and allocating capacities The ERA could identify routes that may be of interest to travellers but which are not yet fully exploited and could make this information available to train operators It could also determine which sections of the desired network services would be

Examples of bordercrossings between Spain France Belgium Germany and Poland that need urgent attention

Member States involved Border crossing Important for Required action

Germany mdash Poland Cottbus mdash Forst mdash  Legnica

connecting Berlin with southern Poland electrification of 138 km

France mdash Germany Colmar mdash Freiburg connecting regions build 1 km bridge

Spain mdash France Astigarraga mdash IrunthinspHendaye mdash Bayonne

connecting Bordeaux to northern Spain

upgrade cross-border section

Spain mdash France (Pau) Bedous mdash Canfranc (Zaragoza)

Reconnect central corridor in the Pyrenees

Refurbishment of 30 km railtrack on French side

17SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

commercially viable and where public service obligations (PSOs) would be needed in order to guarantee a service

Q Night train operators and new rail operators have an especially hard time finding trains that can operate in more than one country The second-hand market for interoperable rolling stock and night trains is limited ordering an entire new fleet is prohibitively expensive and no func-tioning leasing market is in place for this specific segment The Eu and member states should help to find new creative finance mechanisms for overcoming the lack of rolling stock and consider establishing a publicly managed rolling stock pool

Q Airlines pay no tax on kerosene receive 85 of allowances of the European Emissions Trading Scheme free of charge and pay no VAT on international tickets This creates an uneven playing field between aviation and rail The European Commission has announced it will review both the EU Energy Taxation Directive and the EU ETS Directive in 2021 It is crucial to use this opportunity to introduce a kerosene tax in-troduce full auctioning for aviation allowances in the EU ETS and create a stronger price for emission allowances

Q Track access charges are prohibitively high in some EU member states EU Regulation suggests that charges should cover only marginal costs but some member states ask for much higher mark ups for example on highly frequented routes or during rush hours This creates an unfair advantage for road transport which pays only infrastructure charges on approximately 3 of the Eu road network For freight rail some member states have reduced charges but not so for passenger rail EU member states should agree to reduce track access charges to direct cost levels This would increase the use of tracks and could bring higher in-come for infrastructure managers in return During the transition period alternative funding to cover losses of infrastructure managers could come from ETS auctioning revenues

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18 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

Why is this important

Rail can help the EU to achieve its climate targets

Rail is the cleanest mode of transport A flight from Paris to Berlin causes at least six times the CO2 emissions of a train journey Counting the also non-CO2 impacts of aviation the flight is responsible for 18 times the climate impact of a rail trip With further electrification and decarbonisation of power generation the carbon emissions of rail could be reduced to close to zero

Intra-European flights on distances less than 1000 km are estimated to cause 28 MtCO2 every year without counting the non-CO2 impacts Seventeen of the 20 most frequented air routes in Europe are for distances less than 700 km In theory almost all of these journeys could be shifted to rail

The better European cities are connected by rail the easier it is to move trans-port away from high-polluting transport modes such as aviation and cars The more attractive and easy-to-use rail services are the more likely it is that people will want to switch

Rail can be a driver for European recovery post-Covid-19

The rail sector employs more than 23 million people (directly and indirectly) and creates a gross value added of euro143 billion of which euro66 billion is created directly by the sector This is larger than the gross value added of air transport The Eu rail supply industry accounts for around 20 of the global market

Rail infrastructure investments usually need more time but add to mid-term stability and growth expectations in the construction sector Some rail in-frastructure modernisation projects could be realised rapidlymdashfor example track switches bypasses European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) The investments needed for the realisation of the Trans-European Transport (TEN-T) core network for example is estimated to create euro45 trillion cumulated GDP and 13 million job-years EU-wide

19SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

Rail connects people cities and countries

In contrast to aviation rail not only services highly frequented core routes but also has a network that reaches into remote regions This network was much more dense 50 years ago both within countries and in border regions While many connections are not in use anymore because of massive divestment from rail many could easily be reinstalled A network of fast long-distance connections combined with dense regional services could make Europeans feel connected to and part of the EU

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20

Annex Specific recommendations for Poland Germany France and Spain

What can Poland do to boost European rail services

1 Create fair conditions for infrastructure access

The current system of infrastructure access charges is extremely asymmetric and strongly favours road over rail transport Rail currently pays infrastructure access charges on 100 of the railway network (including layovers or the use of railway stations) while road (bus) operators pay charges only on 1 of Pol-ish roads and individual drivers pay only for selected sections of motorways representing around 02 of the entire network Infrastructure charges of road and rail should be aligned in all market segmentsmdashincluding international long-distance transport

The second problem is the high level of track access charges for rail operators As a first step track access charges in Poland should be reduced to the level of costs directly induced by the train journey This would reduce charges from the current 60 of total infrastructure maintenance costs to 30 These charges should go entirely to the Railway Fund and thus contribute to the development and construction of new railway lines (as is the case with roads) Maintenance costs should be covered through the general state budget ultimately the sys-tem of charges for transport infrastructure should be dependent on the level of external costs (pollution noise traffic safety etc)

4

21

2 Invest in interoperable rolling stock for international connections including night trains

The lack of interoperable rolling stock is a key obstacle for the launch of new international long-distance connections Due to the very limited number of in-ternational connections and small passenger flows it is not a priority for carrier investment As a result international rail operatorsmdashespecially night trainsmdashhave access only to old wagons of poor quality In addition international trains waste time at borders due to the lack of multi-system locomotives which could run on different voltage and safety systems In Poland an estimated 40 locomo-tives and approximately 350 wagons are needed to operate connections with other Eu countries (Germany Czech Republic Slovakia and Lithuania) To im-prove the quality and frequency of international connections Poland should launch an investment programme for interoperable rolling stock This could also help the country negotiate with the European union on the co-financing of rolling stock or even an Eu-financed rolling stock pool Currently the long-dis-tance segment is the only area of passenger railway in Poland not covered by any EU support programme for rolling stock

3 Elimination of barriers to entry for new railway carriers

One of the basic problems of the international transport offer is its malad-justment to modern market needs Trains run infrequently tickets are much more expensive than domestic services and there are no discounts available on international trains The reason is that the organisation of connections is left to the incumbent railway carriers from individual countries and inflexi-ble procedures for their cooperation (including archaic regulations on tariffs and ticket sales) The example of low-cost airlines shows that an effective instrument for changing this situation is opening the market to competition In the case of commercial services full deregulation of the market should be achieved Where financial support (PSO) is required to maintain traffic compet-itive tenders for carrier selection should be obligatory in accordance with the provisions of the Fourth Railway Package In the case of Poland it is essential to review and clarify the rules for market access The current regulation leaves room for misinterpretation and is commonly used to block the entry of new entrants to the market which may exert positive pressure on the quality scope and accessibility of services for passengers

22 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Germany do to boost European rail services

1 Reduce track access charges for passenger trains

According to Eu law track access charges should generally only reflect direct costs (wear and tear costs) but Germany for instance makes use of an ex-emption and charges full costs for passenger trains (ie including infrastructure maintenance costs) The German track access charges are as a consequence five times as high as the mere direct costs would be (CERRE 2018) This results in very high access charges for train operators accounting for around a third of total operation costs The average costs per kilometre for long-distance trains rose by 18 between 2013 and 2018 For freight rail Germany has already decided to halve its track access charges The same approach to passenger rail could be a first step in incentivising more international services and to make rail more competitive with other transport modes The lost income for infra-structure managers would need to come from Germanyrsquos general budget

2 Establish a competent national authority for long-distance rail

Germany is the only Eu member state without a national contracting authority for rail transport When Germany reformed its rail system in the 1990s it es-tablished in each of the federal states (Bundeslaumlnder) at least one contract-ing authority responsible for organising and ordering regional rail passenger services and for determining public service obligations There are now 27 re-gional contracting authorities but no such authority at federal level Article 87e(4) of the German constitution obliges the federal government to guarantee non-regional services and provides the legal basis for establishing a national contracting authority by law Yet after more than two decades Germany has still not introduced such a law meaning that all long-distancetrains need to run solely on a commercial basis

This has led to gaps in the national network of long-distance trains and raises the question of how Germany can implement its so-called lsquoDeutschlandtaktrsquo

23ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

an integrated timetable for 2030 which includes routes not commercially via-ble It also makes it more difficult to run international trains through Germany Operating international trains is usually more costly because of higher coor-dination and administration costs and the need to buy or lease interoperable rolling stock In contrast to many other Eu member states Germany provides no support for long-distance trains in the form of public service obligations (PSOs) and also seems to object toother governments covering the German part of the route with PSOs as a recent feasibility study on a StockholmmdashBrus-sels night train revealed

3 Electrify border crossings to Poland and Czech Republic

Most international long-distance trains today run on electricity which is not only cleaner but also faster Only 61 of Germanyrsquos railway network is elec-trified and only 27 of its 57 border crossings into neighbouring countries are electrified Most non-electrified border crossings are on the eastern borders 13 into the Czech Republic and eight into Poland The lack of electrification usually means that locomotives need to be changed at the border adding to travel times and that many faster trains cannot run on those sections To better connect with the east Germany should urgently electrify the following sections

Q CottbusmdashForstmdashLegnica 138 km electrification would speed up services from Berlin to Wroclaw and krakow

Q DresdenmdashGoumlrlitzmdashZgorzelec 95 km electrification would improve train connections between Dresden and Wrocław

Q RegensburgmdashFurth im Wald 131 km electrification would speed up ser-vices from Munich to Prague to less than four hours

Q NuumlrnbergmdashSchirndingmdashCheb 140 km electrification would reduce travel time between Nuremberg and Prague to less than four hours

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24 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can France do to boost European rail services

1 Initiate a national strategy for a modal shift from air to rail

Massive modal shift is no longer an option but a necessity if France is to reach its targets of CO2 emissions Yet there is no long-term plan to reduce the number of flights taken for European travel Such a strategy is much needed as it would allow for long-term planning better coordination with the ERA and better coordination between long-distance and local trains

With an extensive network of railways lines already in place international con-nections do not require any major infrastructure works and couldbe created very quickly What is lacking is an integrated strategy to promote train over air for domestic and European travel France should set clear objectives in modal shift by 2030 and 2050 in accordance with national low carbon strategy (SNBC)

As long- and medium-distance train connections (both day and night ) can be an important asset to reach French climate targets France should create further incentives to boost this modal shift introducing VAT on European flights and reducing VAT on train travel Airport expansion projects in France should also be halted as they undermine efforts towards low emission mobility

2 Ease emergence of new players for long-distance connections

As the European rail market opens private and lsquohistoricrsquo incumbents will have the opportunity to operate new European connections This opening of the Eu-ropean train market will be an opportunity for new train companies to operate these trans-European connections To encourage lsquonewcomersrsquo France should guarantee that the services of these private companies will be able to set up their businesses and operate without obstacles set track access charges to its direct costs level and guarantee that newcomers will have access to public infrastructure and tracks

25ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

The opening of the market could also be an opportunity for incumbents such as SNCF As has been done with Thalys or Eurostar SNCF should initiate a part-nership with other national andor private companies to operate one or several of the European corridors that will be designed

It is quite possible to lsquostart smallrsquo operating only on the sections where infra-structure and rolling stock are compatible (ParismdashBerlin for example) and gradually extend the lines to reach full potential such as ParismdashWarsaw

3 Invest in night train rolling stock

Night trains can be a positive alternative to intra-Eu-ropean flights They can serve both domestic and international destinations However night trains in France have been on a downslide for several years The French government has recently announced that two new national train lines will be reopened This trend should be continued as the number of night trains gradually increases and night train lines extended to international destinations

For the night train renaissance France should in-vest euro150 million each year in rolling stock as the current stock is aging and far too limited This in-vestment will incentivise industries to produce new high-quality wagons designed for the night trains

At night some of the French track capacity is re-served for maintenance work and cannot be usedThis challenge can be overcome by starting with a small number of routes providing alternative routes when needed andor subsidising SNCF Reacute-seau so that maintenance work during the night can be lsquoun-optimisedrsquo that is take place over a longer period but without stopping traffic at night copy

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26 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Spain do to boost European rail services

1 Refurbish upgrade and finalise cross-border connections between Spain Portugal and France

Cross-border connections between Spain and its neighbouring countries need an urgent upgrade to allow smooth fast and convenient passenger trips be-tween major southern European cities In the Basque country the rail lines between Hendaye and Irun should be quickly refurbished to avoid unneces-sary stop-overs and guarantee the integration of French high-speed network (ParismdashBordeauxmdashHendaye) with the Spanish high-speed line in construction between DonostiaBilbao and Vittoria (known as Basque Y) and then towards Madrid and other Spanish cities

In Central Pyrenees the historical line between Pau (Nouvelle Aquitaine) and Zaragoza (Aragon) via the monumental Canfranc International station should be relaunched by building the missing 30 km between Bedous (France) and Canfranc (Spain) This final work will increase freight and passenger connectiv-ity improve cross-border security and boost the economy of isolated regions highly dependent on tourism agriculture and industry

On the Atlantic side the cities of Lisbon and Madrid as well as Santiago de Com-postela (Galicia) and Porto need to be integrated into a high-performance network based on the upgrade of outdated rail tracks This connection would ensure the better cohesion and connection of geographically remote and pe-ripheral cities and regions with the rest of the European capitals

2 Relaunch night train services and long-distance conventional lines

Most of the night time and conventional trains between major southern Euro-pean cities (such as MadridmdashParis BarcelonamdashParis MadridmdashBarcelona Ma-dridmdashLisbon) have been abandoned in the last decade due to aggressive and unfair competition from low-cost airlines and long-distance buses However the climate crisis is pushing citizens towards low-carbon transport such as rail

27ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

Spanish citizens deserve affordable night trains and renovated long-distance trains that allow them to save time carbon and money avoiding expensive night hotels at origin and destination Relaunching cross-regional train lines is also a way to support safe inclusive and sustainable tourism in Mediterranean countries dramatically affected by the Covid crisis and related lockdowns

3 Increase the use of the network by opening the market and levelling the playing field

Spain has the longest high-speed network in Europe (2675 km) but it is the least used with only 13 billion passenger-kilometres in 2018 As a comparison France transported 49 billion passenger-km on a high-speed network of almost equal length (2548 km) When looking at passenger and freight rail together use intensity of the Spanish rail network (34 trains per day per route km) is also very low compared to the rest of Europe (146 in the Netherlands 96 in the UK 78 in Germany 43 in France)

As a large part of the high-speed infrastructure has been financed by the Eu the poor performance of rail in Spain is clearly an inefficient use of public money that should be solved by appropriate regulation and incentives The new law for sustainable mobility in the making is a unique opportunity to reverse those negative trends and fix historical pitfalls The opening of the network to new rail operators planned in 2021 should also contribute to increasing the number of passengers without building any new infrastructure Finally the rules for transport operators should be fair between air road and trains by integrating the environmental and social externalities and incentivising cleaner alternatives

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28

References

BMVI (2020) Trans-Europe Express 20 httpswwwbmvideSharedDocsENDocumentsKinnovative-rail-transport-overnight-21-09-2020pdf__blob=publicationFile (accessed 26 November 2020)

CERRE (2018) Track Access ChargesmdashCase Study Germany httpscerreorgsitescerrefiles180509_CERRE_TrackAccessCharges_CaseStudy_Germa-ny_Finalpdf (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2018) Comprehensive analysis of the existing cross-bor-der rail transport connections and missing links on the internal EU borders httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-detail-publicatione68ec381-62f7-11e8-ab9c-01aa75ed71a1language-en (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2019) Remaining Challenges for EU-wide integrated ticketing and payment services httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-de-tail-publicationaf05b3eb-df43-11e9-9c4e-01aa75ed71a1 (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Court of Auditors (2018) A European high-speed rail network not a reality but an ineffective patchwork ECA Special Report httpswwwecaeuropaeuenPagesDocItemaspxdid=46398 (accessed 26 Novem-ber 2020)

Eurostat (2020) Air passenger transport between the main airports (data sets avia_par_fr avia_par_pl avia_par_de avia_par_es avia_par_b) httpseceuropaeueurostatwebmainhome (accessed 26 November 2020)

Independent Regulatorrsquos Group (IRG) (2020) 8th IRG-Rail Market Monitoring Report httpsirg-raileuirgdocumentsmarket-monitoring (accessed 26 November 2020)

International Railway Journal (2020) Spain urged to rebalance high-speed and suburban rail development 7 August 2020 httpswwwrailjournalcompassengerhigh-speedspain-urged-to-rebalance-high-speed-and-subur-ban-rail-investment (accessed 26 November 2020)

Page 11: Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe...Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe How the 2021 European Year of Rail can˜support the˜European Green Deal and a

11

The Eu has trusted the rail sector to find its own solution but that sector has delayed progress for years Technical solu-tions for integrating information from different train providers are available Independent online ticket vendors like Trainline Omio etc try to assemble tickets from different operators but their websites do not yet show all available rail connections and ticket offers This is because rail operators are reluctant to share all the necessary data with other operators or with independent ticket vendors

The EU needs to require rail operators to share all nec-essary data for easy booking of international rail trips European law currently obliges transport operators to share only some basic data such as static travel and traffic data (19262017 Delegated Regulation of the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) Directive) The regulation does not cover fare data and also leaves it open to member states to require dynamic travel and traffic data (eg information on platform numbers and changes accurate seat plans real-time delays and cancellations predicted arrival time) These data are critical for a seamless journey and for passengers to be able to find alternative connections in case of disruptions (European Commission 2019)

Finland shows the way for multimodal ticketingFinland is the European frontrunner when it comes to multimodal ticketing The 2018 Transport Act obliges all mo-bility service providers to grant access to essential data sales interfaces and reservation interfaces via an Applica-tion Programming Interface (API) The law thus covers not only rail but also public road services Mobility service providers are obliged to cooperate and to enter into agreements based on criteria set out in the Transport Act The Finnish Transport Agency is responsible for monitoring the supply and demand of mobility services and produces statistics from the data ob-tained (European Commission 2019)

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12 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

Some member states move beyond that regulation while others implement only the absolute minimum resulting in legal fragmentation across the EU In Germany for instance Deutsche Bahn (DB) data on timetables and planned disruptions is open to ticket vendors but not data on real-time platforms real-time delays and cancellations or next-day information on delays and cancellation (which is required for claiming compensation)

The EU needs to establish a comprehensive multimodal legal framework for booking ticketing and payment services In its 2021 Work Programme the European Commission announced it would revise the ITS Directive and propose a multimodal ticketing initiative This initiative needs to fulfil the fol-lowing criteria

Q The framework will make access to static and dynamic data manda-tory (including routes stops timetables prices and the availability and accessibility of services)

Q Rail operators will be required to share data via an open Application Programming Interface (API) which must be in machine readable for-mat Many operators have so far failed to build interfaces into their own booking systems

Q The framework should allow ticket vendors to assemble their own discount and promotion packages to compete in an open ticketing market

The EU needs to establish rules to guaran-tee that international rail passengers arrive at their final destination and can hop on the next train in case of missed train connections Rail pas-sengers often need to buy individual tickets from different rail operators for a multi-leg journeymdashand under current rules passengers bear the risk if a connection is missed Rail operators are cur-rently not obliged to sell so-called lsquothrough ticketsrsquo that is one ticket contract for multi-leg journey with a guarantee to arrive at the final destination Also independent ticket vendors that assemble tickets from various operators do not offer such an lsquoarrival guaranteersquo As there are only a few direct interna-tional train connections between major European cities this is a concern for passengers

The BerlinmdashBrussels roulettemdash no lsquohop on the next trainrsquoWhen travelling by train from Berlin to Brussels passengers need to change trains in Cologne Fre-quently the ICE train (operated by DB) from Berlin to Cologne is delayed and travellers miss their con-nection From Cologne to Brussels there is only one ICE train every two hours but a Thalys train several times a day in the lsquointerim slotsrsquo Yet the DB traveller is not allowed to take the Thalys trains to Brussels earlier than the next ICE train because there is no lsquohop on the next trainrsquo agreement between Thalys and DB meaning travellers oftenneed 08h49 in-stead of 06h49 for the trip

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13EASY BOOkING

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14

Smart spending Use EU money to improve rail infrastructure capacity and connectivity

EU funding (cohesion funding Connecting Europe Facility Recovery and Resil-ience Facility) makes up an important share of overall transport infrastructure funding especially in the new member states Yet in the past Eu transport funding has not always been used wisely Too much funding went into road and airports and too little into rail This is especially the case for EU cohesion fund-ing around 50 of transport cohesion funding goes into road and only 25 into rail projects Funding decisions are based on plans prepared by the

respective member state and negotiated between member states and the European Commission

European Investment Bank (EIB) transport lending is still supporting unsustainable infrastructure such as airports and new motorway projects Transport is the single largest sector of EIB activity accounting for about 1 in every 4 euros invested by the bank The bank is however in the process of revising both its climate (2020) and transport policies (2021)

Too much money also goes into mega-projects with exploding costs and long delays The Eu-ropean Court of Auditors (2018) cautioned that projects were often chosen based on political de-cisions and not on thorough cost-benefit analyses

3

Only one out of seven border crossings between Germany and Poland is electrifiedThere were once 24 rail links between Germany and Poland of which only seven remain in operation Yet only the border crossing at Frankfurt (Oder) is electrified The trains from Berlin to Warsaw or to Gdansk operate on this line The remaining six border crossings are not yet electrified meaning that trains need to run on diesel The CottbusmdashLegnica link is particularly relevant to connect Berlin to densely populated Southern Poland (Wroclaw Silesia Krakow) To electrify this 138 km link would cost approximately euro100 million but could reduce travel time between Berlin and Wroclaw from currently 45 hours to only 3 hours because Eurocity trains could take a more direct route (currently going through Frankfurt (Oder)) For comparison before the 2nd World War travel time was only 25 hours

PRIORITY

15

The evaluated high-speed projects took 16 years on average cost on average euro25 million per track km but often do not deliver on expectations average speeds rarely reach 200 kmh and only few lines transported more than nine million passengers per year (the benchmark for a successful high-speed line) In contrast small-scale interventions with greater European potential are of-ten not implemented This can be electrification constructing a second track or bypasses to increase capacity and speed or closing smaller missing links on the border

The European Court of Auditors also noted a lack of coordination of cross-border infrastructure projects Member states take a national perspec-tive and do not prioritise closing cross-border gaps This means that infrastructure might have been completed on one side of the border but delayed by years on the other side

The EU should ensure that EU funding

Q Supports modal shift towards rail In the negotiations of the Operational Programmes for Cohesion funding the European Commis-sion should ensure that more budget goes to rail than to road and no new roads are financedin the old member states as they al-ready have a sufficiently dense road network The European Commission should also ask member states to present modal shift tar-gets if they want to access funds for trans-port under the Recovery and Resilience Facility The EIB should in the upcoming review of its Transport Strategy decide to stop funding any airport infrastructure or road network expansion and instead increase funding for electric cross-border rail projects and rolling stock

Q Prioritises rail projects essential for intra-European rail services Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funding should only go into projects that are key to cross-border connectivity (eg for key corridors) and should focus more on low-hanging fruits than on new mega-projects Such inter-ventions should be based on sound cost-benefit analysis When evaluating

Spain has only one international long-distance rail lineSpain has invested massively into high-speed lines over the last decades with euro14 billion (25 of total investment) coming from Eu funds (Inter-national Railway Journal 2020) Yet there is only one international high-speed rail line connecting Barcelona with Montpellier in France The tracks are underused with only two services per day For regional services there are additional border crossings in Portbou-Perpignan (Mediterranean coast) IrunHendaye (Atlantic coast) and Puigcerda (Pyrenees) but none of them is serviced frequently Another difficulty on these regional lines is that trains need to change between standard and Ibe-rian track gauge at the borderThe connection between Spain and Portugal is even worse a rail trip from Madrid to Lisbon (625 km) takes 10h50 and requires three changes as only regional lines operate across borders There are border crossings in Badajoz-Elvas Fregenada-Bar-ca de Alva and Vigo-Porto but they are under-used The only long-distance line to Portugal is a night train from HendayeIrun to Lisbon (currently sus-pended due to Covid-19) The TEN-T network plan foresees a high-speed connection between Madrid and Lisbon as part of the core network but the project is currently not being pursued by either the Portuguese or the Spanish government

16 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

member statesrsquo operational programmes for cohesion fundingrecovery funding the European Commission should suggest to member states that they include rail projects that are key tothe functioning of a European rail network

Q Promotes infrastructure interventions which are accompanied by transformative measures When accessing EU rail infrastructure funding member states should be required to present accompanying policy measures which ensure that the infrastructure is used efficiently

Other policy interventions for supporting European rail

Apart from the above mentioned priorities the EU and member states should address the following obstacles

Q International rail has no strong voice in the current system because member states and incumbent railway operators tend to focus on their own national markets There is also a lack of coordination of infrastructure managers across borders The EU should strengthen the European Rail Agency (ERA) as a traffic control and coordination authority for international rail transport The ERA should be entrusted with forecasting demand assessing the level of required services (destination frequency speed) and allocating capacities The ERA could identify routes that may be of interest to travellers but which are not yet fully exploited and could make this information available to train operators It could also determine which sections of the desired network services would be

Examples of bordercrossings between Spain France Belgium Germany and Poland that need urgent attention

Member States involved Border crossing Important for Required action

Germany mdash Poland Cottbus mdash Forst mdash  Legnica

connecting Berlin with southern Poland electrification of 138 km

France mdash Germany Colmar mdash Freiburg connecting regions build 1 km bridge

Spain mdash France Astigarraga mdash IrunthinspHendaye mdash Bayonne

connecting Bordeaux to northern Spain

upgrade cross-border section

Spain mdash France (Pau) Bedous mdash Canfranc (Zaragoza)

Reconnect central corridor in the Pyrenees

Refurbishment of 30 km railtrack on French side

17SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

commercially viable and where public service obligations (PSOs) would be needed in order to guarantee a service

Q Night train operators and new rail operators have an especially hard time finding trains that can operate in more than one country The second-hand market for interoperable rolling stock and night trains is limited ordering an entire new fleet is prohibitively expensive and no func-tioning leasing market is in place for this specific segment The Eu and member states should help to find new creative finance mechanisms for overcoming the lack of rolling stock and consider establishing a publicly managed rolling stock pool

Q Airlines pay no tax on kerosene receive 85 of allowances of the European Emissions Trading Scheme free of charge and pay no VAT on international tickets This creates an uneven playing field between aviation and rail The European Commission has announced it will review both the EU Energy Taxation Directive and the EU ETS Directive in 2021 It is crucial to use this opportunity to introduce a kerosene tax in-troduce full auctioning for aviation allowances in the EU ETS and create a stronger price for emission allowances

Q Track access charges are prohibitively high in some EU member states EU Regulation suggests that charges should cover only marginal costs but some member states ask for much higher mark ups for example on highly frequented routes or during rush hours This creates an unfair advantage for road transport which pays only infrastructure charges on approximately 3 of the Eu road network For freight rail some member states have reduced charges but not so for passenger rail EU member states should agree to reduce track access charges to direct cost levels This would increase the use of tracks and could bring higher in-come for infrastructure managers in return During the transition period alternative funding to cover losses of infrastructure managers could come from ETS auctioning revenues

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18 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

Why is this important

Rail can help the EU to achieve its climate targets

Rail is the cleanest mode of transport A flight from Paris to Berlin causes at least six times the CO2 emissions of a train journey Counting the also non-CO2 impacts of aviation the flight is responsible for 18 times the climate impact of a rail trip With further electrification and decarbonisation of power generation the carbon emissions of rail could be reduced to close to zero

Intra-European flights on distances less than 1000 km are estimated to cause 28 MtCO2 every year without counting the non-CO2 impacts Seventeen of the 20 most frequented air routes in Europe are for distances less than 700 km In theory almost all of these journeys could be shifted to rail

The better European cities are connected by rail the easier it is to move trans-port away from high-polluting transport modes such as aviation and cars The more attractive and easy-to-use rail services are the more likely it is that people will want to switch

Rail can be a driver for European recovery post-Covid-19

The rail sector employs more than 23 million people (directly and indirectly) and creates a gross value added of euro143 billion of which euro66 billion is created directly by the sector This is larger than the gross value added of air transport The Eu rail supply industry accounts for around 20 of the global market

Rail infrastructure investments usually need more time but add to mid-term stability and growth expectations in the construction sector Some rail in-frastructure modernisation projects could be realised rapidlymdashfor example track switches bypasses European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) The investments needed for the realisation of the Trans-European Transport (TEN-T) core network for example is estimated to create euro45 trillion cumulated GDP and 13 million job-years EU-wide

19SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

Rail connects people cities and countries

In contrast to aviation rail not only services highly frequented core routes but also has a network that reaches into remote regions This network was much more dense 50 years ago both within countries and in border regions While many connections are not in use anymore because of massive divestment from rail many could easily be reinstalled A network of fast long-distance connections combined with dense regional services could make Europeans feel connected to and part of the EU

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20

Annex Specific recommendations for Poland Germany France and Spain

What can Poland do to boost European rail services

1 Create fair conditions for infrastructure access

The current system of infrastructure access charges is extremely asymmetric and strongly favours road over rail transport Rail currently pays infrastructure access charges on 100 of the railway network (including layovers or the use of railway stations) while road (bus) operators pay charges only on 1 of Pol-ish roads and individual drivers pay only for selected sections of motorways representing around 02 of the entire network Infrastructure charges of road and rail should be aligned in all market segmentsmdashincluding international long-distance transport

The second problem is the high level of track access charges for rail operators As a first step track access charges in Poland should be reduced to the level of costs directly induced by the train journey This would reduce charges from the current 60 of total infrastructure maintenance costs to 30 These charges should go entirely to the Railway Fund and thus contribute to the development and construction of new railway lines (as is the case with roads) Maintenance costs should be covered through the general state budget ultimately the sys-tem of charges for transport infrastructure should be dependent on the level of external costs (pollution noise traffic safety etc)

4

21

2 Invest in interoperable rolling stock for international connections including night trains

The lack of interoperable rolling stock is a key obstacle for the launch of new international long-distance connections Due to the very limited number of in-ternational connections and small passenger flows it is not a priority for carrier investment As a result international rail operatorsmdashespecially night trainsmdashhave access only to old wagons of poor quality In addition international trains waste time at borders due to the lack of multi-system locomotives which could run on different voltage and safety systems In Poland an estimated 40 locomo-tives and approximately 350 wagons are needed to operate connections with other Eu countries (Germany Czech Republic Slovakia and Lithuania) To im-prove the quality and frequency of international connections Poland should launch an investment programme for interoperable rolling stock This could also help the country negotiate with the European union on the co-financing of rolling stock or even an Eu-financed rolling stock pool Currently the long-dis-tance segment is the only area of passenger railway in Poland not covered by any EU support programme for rolling stock

3 Elimination of barriers to entry for new railway carriers

One of the basic problems of the international transport offer is its malad-justment to modern market needs Trains run infrequently tickets are much more expensive than domestic services and there are no discounts available on international trains The reason is that the organisation of connections is left to the incumbent railway carriers from individual countries and inflexi-ble procedures for their cooperation (including archaic regulations on tariffs and ticket sales) The example of low-cost airlines shows that an effective instrument for changing this situation is opening the market to competition In the case of commercial services full deregulation of the market should be achieved Where financial support (PSO) is required to maintain traffic compet-itive tenders for carrier selection should be obligatory in accordance with the provisions of the Fourth Railway Package In the case of Poland it is essential to review and clarify the rules for market access The current regulation leaves room for misinterpretation and is commonly used to block the entry of new entrants to the market which may exert positive pressure on the quality scope and accessibility of services for passengers

22 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Germany do to boost European rail services

1 Reduce track access charges for passenger trains

According to Eu law track access charges should generally only reflect direct costs (wear and tear costs) but Germany for instance makes use of an ex-emption and charges full costs for passenger trains (ie including infrastructure maintenance costs) The German track access charges are as a consequence five times as high as the mere direct costs would be (CERRE 2018) This results in very high access charges for train operators accounting for around a third of total operation costs The average costs per kilometre for long-distance trains rose by 18 between 2013 and 2018 For freight rail Germany has already decided to halve its track access charges The same approach to passenger rail could be a first step in incentivising more international services and to make rail more competitive with other transport modes The lost income for infra-structure managers would need to come from Germanyrsquos general budget

2 Establish a competent national authority for long-distance rail

Germany is the only Eu member state without a national contracting authority for rail transport When Germany reformed its rail system in the 1990s it es-tablished in each of the federal states (Bundeslaumlnder) at least one contract-ing authority responsible for organising and ordering regional rail passenger services and for determining public service obligations There are now 27 re-gional contracting authorities but no such authority at federal level Article 87e(4) of the German constitution obliges the federal government to guarantee non-regional services and provides the legal basis for establishing a national contracting authority by law Yet after more than two decades Germany has still not introduced such a law meaning that all long-distancetrains need to run solely on a commercial basis

This has led to gaps in the national network of long-distance trains and raises the question of how Germany can implement its so-called lsquoDeutschlandtaktrsquo

23ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

an integrated timetable for 2030 which includes routes not commercially via-ble It also makes it more difficult to run international trains through Germany Operating international trains is usually more costly because of higher coor-dination and administration costs and the need to buy or lease interoperable rolling stock In contrast to many other Eu member states Germany provides no support for long-distance trains in the form of public service obligations (PSOs) and also seems to object toother governments covering the German part of the route with PSOs as a recent feasibility study on a StockholmmdashBrus-sels night train revealed

3 Electrify border crossings to Poland and Czech Republic

Most international long-distance trains today run on electricity which is not only cleaner but also faster Only 61 of Germanyrsquos railway network is elec-trified and only 27 of its 57 border crossings into neighbouring countries are electrified Most non-electrified border crossings are on the eastern borders 13 into the Czech Republic and eight into Poland The lack of electrification usually means that locomotives need to be changed at the border adding to travel times and that many faster trains cannot run on those sections To better connect with the east Germany should urgently electrify the following sections

Q CottbusmdashForstmdashLegnica 138 km electrification would speed up services from Berlin to Wroclaw and krakow

Q DresdenmdashGoumlrlitzmdashZgorzelec 95 km electrification would improve train connections between Dresden and Wrocław

Q RegensburgmdashFurth im Wald 131 km electrification would speed up ser-vices from Munich to Prague to less than four hours

Q NuumlrnbergmdashSchirndingmdashCheb 140 km electrification would reduce travel time between Nuremberg and Prague to less than four hours

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24 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can France do to boost European rail services

1 Initiate a national strategy for a modal shift from air to rail

Massive modal shift is no longer an option but a necessity if France is to reach its targets of CO2 emissions Yet there is no long-term plan to reduce the number of flights taken for European travel Such a strategy is much needed as it would allow for long-term planning better coordination with the ERA and better coordination between long-distance and local trains

With an extensive network of railways lines already in place international con-nections do not require any major infrastructure works and couldbe created very quickly What is lacking is an integrated strategy to promote train over air for domestic and European travel France should set clear objectives in modal shift by 2030 and 2050 in accordance with national low carbon strategy (SNBC)

As long- and medium-distance train connections (both day and night ) can be an important asset to reach French climate targets France should create further incentives to boost this modal shift introducing VAT on European flights and reducing VAT on train travel Airport expansion projects in France should also be halted as they undermine efforts towards low emission mobility

2 Ease emergence of new players for long-distance connections

As the European rail market opens private and lsquohistoricrsquo incumbents will have the opportunity to operate new European connections This opening of the Eu-ropean train market will be an opportunity for new train companies to operate these trans-European connections To encourage lsquonewcomersrsquo France should guarantee that the services of these private companies will be able to set up their businesses and operate without obstacles set track access charges to its direct costs level and guarantee that newcomers will have access to public infrastructure and tracks

25ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

The opening of the market could also be an opportunity for incumbents such as SNCF As has been done with Thalys or Eurostar SNCF should initiate a part-nership with other national andor private companies to operate one or several of the European corridors that will be designed

It is quite possible to lsquostart smallrsquo operating only on the sections where infra-structure and rolling stock are compatible (ParismdashBerlin for example) and gradually extend the lines to reach full potential such as ParismdashWarsaw

3 Invest in night train rolling stock

Night trains can be a positive alternative to intra-Eu-ropean flights They can serve both domestic and international destinations However night trains in France have been on a downslide for several years The French government has recently announced that two new national train lines will be reopened This trend should be continued as the number of night trains gradually increases and night train lines extended to international destinations

For the night train renaissance France should in-vest euro150 million each year in rolling stock as the current stock is aging and far too limited This in-vestment will incentivise industries to produce new high-quality wagons designed for the night trains

At night some of the French track capacity is re-served for maintenance work and cannot be usedThis challenge can be overcome by starting with a small number of routes providing alternative routes when needed andor subsidising SNCF Reacute-seau so that maintenance work during the night can be lsquoun-optimisedrsquo that is take place over a longer period but without stopping traffic at night copy

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26 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Spain do to boost European rail services

1 Refurbish upgrade and finalise cross-border connections between Spain Portugal and France

Cross-border connections between Spain and its neighbouring countries need an urgent upgrade to allow smooth fast and convenient passenger trips be-tween major southern European cities In the Basque country the rail lines between Hendaye and Irun should be quickly refurbished to avoid unneces-sary stop-overs and guarantee the integration of French high-speed network (ParismdashBordeauxmdashHendaye) with the Spanish high-speed line in construction between DonostiaBilbao and Vittoria (known as Basque Y) and then towards Madrid and other Spanish cities

In Central Pyrenees the historical line between Pau (Nouvelle Aquitaine) and Zaragoza (Aragon) via the monumental Canfranc International station should be relaunched by building the missing 30 km between Bedous (France) and Canfranc (Spain) This final work will increase freight and passenger connectiv-ity improve cross-border security and boost the economy of isolated regions highly dependent on tourism agriculture and industry

On the Atlantic side the cities of Lisbon and Madrid as well as Santiago de Com-postela (Galicia) and Porto need to be integrated into a high-performance network based on the upgrade of outdated rail tracks This connection would ensure the better cohesion and connection of geographically remote and pe-ripheral cities and regions with the rest of the European capitals

2 Relaunch night train services and long-distance conventional lines

Most of the night time and conventional trains between major southern Euro-pean cities (such as MadridmdashParis BarcelonamdashParis MadridmdashBarcelona Ma-dridmdashLisbon) have been abandoned in the last decade due to aggressive and unfair competition from low-cost airlines and long-distance buses However the climate crisis is pushing citizens towards low-carbon transport such as rail

27ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

Spanish citizens deserve affordable night trains and renovated long-distance trains that allow them to save time carbon and money avoiding expensive night hotels at origin and destination Relaunching cross-regional train lines is also a way to support safe inclusive and sustainable tourism in Mediterranean countries dramatically affected by the Covid crisis and related lockdowns

3 Increase the use of the network by opening the market and levelling the playing field

Spain has the longest high-speed network in Europe (2675 km) but it is the least used with only 13 billion passenger-kilometres in 2018 As a comparison France transported 49 billion passenger-km on a high-speed network of almost equal length (2548 km) When looking at passenger and freight rail together use intensity of the Spanish rail network (34 trains per day per route km) is also very low compared to the rest of Europe (146 in the Netherlands 96 in the UK 78 in Germany 43 in France)

As a large part of the high-speed infrastructure has been financed by the Eu the poor performance of rail in Spain is clearly an inefficient use of public money that should be solved by appropriate regulation and incentives The new law for sustainable mobility in the making is a unique opportunity to reverse those negative trends and fix historical pitfalls The opening of the network to new rail operators planned in 2021 should also contribute to increasing the number of passengers without building any new infrastructure Finally the rules for transport operators should be fair between air road and trains by integrating the environmental and social externalities and incentivising cleaner alternatives

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28

References

BMVI (2020) Trans-Europe Express 20 httpswwwbmvideSharedDocsENDocumentsKinnovative-rail-transport-overnight-21-09-2020pdf__blob=publicationFile (accessed 26 November 2020)

CERRE (2018) Track Access ChargesmdashCase Study Germany httpscerreorgsitescerrefiles180509_CERRE_TrackAccessCharges_CaseStudy_Germa-ny_Finalpdf (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2018) Comprehensive analysis of the existing cross-bor-der rail transport connections and missing links on the internal EU borders httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-detail-publicatione68ec381-62f7-11e8-ab9c-01aa75ed71a1language-en (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2019) Remaining Challenges for EU-wide integrated ticketing and payment services httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-de-tail-publicationaf05b3eb-df43-11e9-9c4e-01aa75ed71a1 (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Court of Auditors (2018) A European high-speed rail network not a reality but an ineffective patchwork ECA Special Report httpswwwecaeuropaeuenPagesDocItemaspxdid=46398 (accessed 26 Novem-ber 2020)

Eurostat (2020) Air passenger transport between the main airports (data sets avia_par_fr avia_par_pl avia_par_de avia_par_es avia_par_b) httpseceuropaeueurostatwebmainhome (accessed 26 November 2020)

Independent Regulatorrsquos Group (IRG) (2020) 8th IRG-Rail Market Monitoring Report httpsirg-raileuirgdocumentsmarket-monitoring (accessed 26 November 2020)

International Railway Journal (2020) Spain urged to rebalance high-speed and suburban rail development 7 August 2020 httpswwwrailjournalcompassengerhigh-speedspain-urged-to-rebalance-high-speed-and-subur-ban-rail-investment (accessed 26 November 2020)

Page 12: Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe...Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe How the 2021 European Year of Rail can˜support the˜European Green Deal and a

12 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

Some member states move beyond that regulation while others implement only the absolute minimum resulting in legal fragmentation across the EU In Germany for instance Deutsche Bahn (DB) data on timetables and planned disruptions is open to ticket vendors but not data on real-time platforms real-time delays and cancellations or next-day information on delays and cancellation (which is required for claiming compensation)

The EU needs to establish a comprehensive multimodal legal framework for booking ticketing and payment services In its 2021 Work Programme the European Commission announced it would revise the ITS Directive and propose a multimodal ticketing initiative This initiative needs to fulfil the fol-lowing criteria

Q The framework will make access to static and dynamic data manda-tory (including routes stops timetables prices and the availability and accessibility of services)

Q Rail operators will be required to share data via an open Application Programming Interface (API) which must be in machine readable for-mat Many operators have so far failed to build interfaces into their own booking systems

Q The framework should allow ticket vendors to assemble their own discount and promotion packages to compete in an open ticketing market

The EU needs to establish rules to guaran-tee that international rail passengers arrive at their final destination and can hop on the next train in case of missed train connections Rail pas-sengers often need to buy individual tickets from different rail operators for a multi-leg journeymdashand under current rules passengers bear the risk if a connection is missed Rail operators are cur-rently not obliged to sell so-called lsquothrough ticketsrsquo that is one ticket contract for multi-leg journey with a guarantee to arrive at the final destination Also independent ticket vendors that assemble tickets from various operators do not offer such an lsquoarrival guaranteersquo As there are only a few direct interna-tional train connections between major European cities this is a concern for passengers

The BerlinmdashBrussels roulettemdash no lsquohop on the next trainrsquoWhen travelling by train from Berlin to Brussels passengers need to change trains in Cologne Fre-quently the ICE train (operated by DB) from Berlin to Cologne is delayed and travellers miss their con-nection From Cologne to Brussels there is only one ICE train every two hours but a Thalys train several times a day in the lsquointerim slotsrsquo Yet the DB traveller is not allowed to take the Thalys trains to Brussels earlier than the next ICE train because there is no lsquohop on the next trainrsquo agreement between Thalys and DB meaning travellers oftenneed 08h49 in-stead of 06h49 for the trip

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Smart spending Use EU money to improve rail infrastructure capacity and connectivity

EU funding (cohesion funding Connecting Europe Facility Recovery and Resil-ience Facility) makes up an important share of overall transport infrastructure funding especially in the new member states Yet in the past Eu transport funding has not always been used wisely Too much funding went into road and airports and too little into rail This is especially the case for EU cohesion fund-ing around 50 of transport cohesion funding goes into road and only 25 into rail projects Funding decisions are based on plans prepared by the

respective member state and negotiated between member states and the European Commission

European Investment Bank (EIB) transport lending is still supporting unsustainable infrastructure such as airports and new motorway projects Transport is the single largest sector of EIB activity accounting for about 1 in every 4 euros invested by the bank The bank is however in the process of revising both its climate (2020) and transport policies (2021)

Too much money also goes into mega-projects with exploding costs and long delays The Eu-ropean Court of Auditors (2018) cautioned that projects were often chosen based on political de-cisions and not on thorough cost-benefit analyses

3

Only one out of seven border crossings between Germany and Poland is electrifiedThere were once 24 rail links between Germany and Poland of which only seven remain in operation Yet only the border crossing at Frankfurt (Oder) is electrified The trains from Berlin to Warsaw or to Gdansk operate on this line The remaining six border crossings are not yet electrified meaning that trains need to run on diesel The CottbusmdashLegnica link is particularly relevant to connect Berlin to densely populated Southern Poland (Wroclaw Silesia Krakow) To electrify this 138 km link would cost approximately euro100 million but could reduce travel time between Berlin and Wroclaw from currently 45 hours to only 3 hours because Eurocity trains could take a more direct route (currently going through Frankfurt (Oder)) For comparison before the 2nd World War travel time was only 25 hours

PRIORITY

15

The evaluated high-speed projects took 16 years on average cost on average euro25 million per track km but often do not deliver on expectations average speeds rarely reach 200 kmh and only few lines transported more than nine million passengers per year (the benchmark for a successful high-speed line) In contrast small-scale interventions with greater European potential are of-ten not implemented This can be electrification constructing a second track or bypasses to increase capacity and speed or closing smaller missing links on the border

The European Court of Auditors also noted a lack of coordination of cross-border infrastructure projects Member states take a national perspec-tive and do not prioritise closing cross-border gaps This means that infrastructure might have been completed on one side of the border but delayed by years on the other side

The EU should ensure that EU funding

Q Supports modal shift towards rail In the negotiations of the Operational Programmes for Cohesion funding the European Commis-sion should ensure that more budget goes to rail than to road and no new roads are financedin the old member states as they al-ready have a sufficiently dense road network The European Commission should also ask member states to present modal shift tar-gets if they want to access funds for trans-port under the Recovery and Resilience Facility The EIB should in the upcoming review of its Transport Strategy decide to stop funding any airport infrastructure or road network expansion and instead increase funding for electric cross-border rail projects and rolling stock

Q Prioritises rail projects essential for intra-European rail services Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funding should only go into projects that are key to cross-border connectivity (eg for key corridors) and should focus more on low-hanging fruits than on new mega-projects Such inter-ventions should be based on sound cost-benefit analysis When evaluating

Spain has only one international long-distance rail lineSpain has invested massively into high-speed lines over the last decades with euro14 billion (25 of total investment) coming from Eu funds (Inter-national Railway Journal 2020) Yet there is only one international high-speed rail line connecting Barcelona with Montpellier in France The tracks are underused with only two services per day For regional services there are additional border crossings in Portbou-Perpignan (Mediterranean coast) IrunHendaye (Atlantic coast) and Puigcerda (Pyrenees) but none of them is serviced frequently Another difficulty on these regional lines is that trains need to change between standard and Ibe-rian track gauge at the borderThe connection between Spain and Portugal is even worse a rail trip from Madrid to Lisbon (625 km) takes 10h50 and requires three changes as only regional lines operate across borders There are border crossings in Badajoz-Elvas Fregenada-Bar-ca de Alva and Vigo-Porto but they are under-used The only long-distance line to Portugal is a night train from HendayeIrun to Lisbon (currently sus-pended due to Covid-19) The TEN-T network plan foresees a high-speed connection between Madrid and Lisbon as part of the core network but the project is currently not being pursued by either the Portuguese or the Spanish government

16 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

member statesrsquo operational programmes for cohesion fundingrecovery funding the European Commission should suggest to member states that they include rail projects that are key tothe functioning of a European rail network

Q Promotes infrastructure interventions which are accompanied by transformative measures When accessing EU rail infrastructure funding member states should be required to present accompanying policy measures which ensure that the infrastructure is used efficiently

Other policy interventions for supporting European rail

Apart from the above mentioned priorities the EU and member states should address the following obstacles

Q International rail has no strong voice in the current system because member states and incumbent railway operators tend to focus on their own national markets There is also a lack of coordination of infrastructure managers across borders The EU should strengthen the European Rail Agency (ERA) as a traffic control and coordination authority for international rail transport The ERA should be entrusted with forecasting demand assessing the level of required services (destination frequency speed) and allocating capacities The ERA could identify routes that may be of interest to travellers but which are not yet fully exploited and could make this information available to train operators It could also determine which sections of the desired network services would be

Examples of bordercrossings between Spain France Belgium Germany and Poland that need urgent attention

Member States involved Border crossing Important for Required action

Germany mdash Poland Cottbus mdash Forst mdash  Legnica

connecting Berlin with southern Poland electrification of 138 km

France mdash Germany Colmar mdash Freiburg connecting regions build 1 km bridge

Spain mdash France Astigarraga mdash IrunthinspHendaye mdash Bayonne

connecting Bordeaux to northern Spain

upgrade cross-border section

Spain mdash France (Pau) Bedous mdash Canfranc (Zaragoza)

Reconnect central corridor in the Pyrenees

Refurbishment of 30 km railtrack on French side

17SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

commercially viable and where public service obligations (PSOs) would be needed in order to guarantee a service

Q Night train operators and new rail operators have an especially hard time finding trains that can operate in more than one country The second-hand market for interoperable rolling stock and night trains is limited ordering an entire new fleet is prohibitively expensive and no func-tioning leasing market is in place for this specific segment The Eu and member states should help to find new creative finance mechanisms for overcoming the lack of rolling stock and consider establishing a publicly managed rolling stock pool

Q Airlines pay no tax on kerosene receive 85 of allowances of the European Emissions Trading Scheme free of charge and pay no VAT on international tickets This creates an uneven playing field between aviation and rail The European Commission has announced it will review both the EU Energy Taxation Directive and the EU ETS Directive in 2021 It is crucial to use this opportunity to introduce a kerosene tax in-troduce full auctioning for aviation allowances in the EU ETS and create a stronger price for emission allowances

Q Track access charges are prohibitively high in some EU member states EU Regulation suggests that charges should cover only marginal costs but some member states ask for much higher mark ups for example on highly frequented routes or during rush hours This creates an unfair advantage for road transport which pays only infrastructure charges on approximately 3 of the Eu road network For freight rail some member states have reduced charges but not so for passenger rail EU member states should agree to reduce track access charges to direct cost levels This would increase the use of tracks and could bring higher in-come for infrastructure managers in return During the transition period alternative funding to cover losses of infrastructure managers could come from ETS auctioning revenues

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18 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

Why is this important

Rail can help the EU to achieve its climate targets

Rail is the cleanest mode of transport A flight from Paris to Berlin causes at least six times the CO2 emissions of a train journey Counting the also non-CO2 impacts of aviation the flight is responsible for 18 times the climate impact of a rail trip With further electrification and decarbonisation of power generation the carbon emissions of rail could be reduced to close to zero

Intra-European flights on distances less than 1000 km are estimated to cause 28 MtCO2 every year without counting the non-CO2 impacts Seventeen of the 20 most frequented air routes in Europe are for distances less than 700 km In theory almost all of these journeys could be shifted to rail

The better European cities are connected by rail the easier it is to move trans-port away from high-polluting transport modes such as aviation and cars The more attractive and easy-to-use rail services are the more likely it is that people will want to switch

Rail can be a driver for European recovery post-Covid-19

The rail sector employs more than 23 million people (directly and indirectly) and creates a gross value added of euro143 billion of which euro66 billion is created directly by the sector This is larger than the gross value added of air transport The Eu rail supply industry accounts for around 20 of the global market

Rail infrastructure investments usually need more time but add to mid-term stability and growth expectations in the construction sector Some rail in-frastructure modernisation projects could be realised rapidlymdashfor example track switches bypasses European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) The investments needed for the realisation of the Trans-European Transport (TEN-T) core network for example is estimated to create euro45 trillion cumulated GDP and 13 million job-years EU-wide

19SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

Rail connects people cities and countries

In contrast to aviation rail not only services highly frequented core routes but also has a network that reaches into remote regions This network was much more dense 50 years ago both within countries and in border regions While many connections are not in use anymore because of massive divestment from rail many could easily be reinstalled A network of fast long-distance connections combined with dense regional services could make Europeans feel connected to and part of the EU

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20

Annex Specific recommendations for Poland Germany France and Spain

What can Poland do to boost European rail services

1 Create fair conditions for infrastructure access

The current system of infrastructure access charges is extremely asymmetric and strongly favours road over rail transport Rail currently pays infrastructure access charges on 100 of the railway network (including layovers or the use of railway stations) while road (bus) operators pay charges only on 1 of Pol-ish roads and individual drivers pay only for selected sections of motorways representing around 02 of the entire network Infrastructure charges of road and rail should be aligned in all market segmentsmdashincluding international long-distance transport

The second problem is the high level of track access charges for rail operators As a first step track access charges in Poland should be reduced to the level of costs directly induced by the train journey This would reduce charges from the current 60 of total infrastructure maintenance costs to 30 These charges should go entirely to the Railway Fund and thus contribute to the development and construction of new railway lines (as is the case with roads) Maintenance costs should be covered through the general state budget ultimately the sys-tem of charges for transport infrastructure should be dependent on the level of external costs (pollution noise traffic safety etc)

4

21

2 Invest in interoperable rolling stock for international connections including night trains

The lack of interoperable rolling stock is a key obstacle for the launch of new international long-distance connections Due to the very limited number of in-ternational connections and small passenger flows it is not a priority for carrier investment As a result international rail operatorsmdashespecially night trainsmdashhave access only to old wagons of poor quality In addition international trains waste time at borders due to the lack of multi-system locomotives which could run on different voltage and safety systems In Poland an estimated 40 locomo-tives and approximately 350 wagons are needed to operate connections with other Eu countries (Germany Czech Republic Slovakia and Lithuania) To im-prove the quality and frequency of international connections Poland should launch an investment programme for interoperable rolling stock This could also help the country negotiate with the European union on the co-financing of rolling stock or even an Eu-financed rolling stock pool Currently the long-dis-tance segment is the only area of passenger railway in Poland not covered by any EU support programme for rolling stock

3 Elimination of barriers to entry for new railway carriers

One of the basic problems of the international transport offer is its malad-justment to modern market needs Trains run infrequently tickets are much more expensive than domestic services and there are no discounts available on international trains The reason is that the organisation of connections is left to the incumbent railway carriers from individual countries and inflexi-ble procedures for their cooperation (including archaic regulations on tariffs and ticket sales) The example of low-cost airlines shows that an effective instrument for changing this situation is opening the market to competition In the case of commercial services full deregulation of the market should be achieved Where financial support (PSO) is required to maintain traffic compet-itive tenders for carrier selection should be obligatory in accordance with the provisions of the Fourth Railway Package In the case of Poland it is essential to review and clarify the rules for market access The current regulation leaves room for misinterpretation and is commonly used to block the entry of new entrants to the market which may exert positive pressure on the quality scope and accessibility of services for passengers

22 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Germany do to boost European rail services

1 Reduce track access charges for passenger trains

According to Eu law track access charges should generally only reflect direct costs (wear and tear costs) but Germany for instance makes use of an ex-emption and charges full costs for passenger trains (ie including infrastructure maintenance costs) The German track access charges are as a consequence five times as high as the mere direct costs would be (CERRE 2018) This results in very high access charges for train operators accounting for around a third of total operation costs The average costs per kilometre for long-distance trains rose by 18 between 2013 and 2018 For freight rail Germany has already decided to halve its track access charges The same approach to passenger rail could be a first step in incentivising more international services and to make rail more competitive with other transport modes The lost income for infra-structure managers would need to come from Germanyrsquos general budget

2 Establish a competent national authority for long-distance rail

Germany is the only Eu member state without a national contracting authority for rail transport When Germany reformed its rail system in the 1990s it es-tablished in each of the federal states (Bundeslaumlnder) at least one contract-ing authority responsible for organising and ordering regional rail passenger services and for determining public service obligations There are now 27 re-gional contracting authorities but no such authority at federal level Article 87e(4) of the German constitution obliges the federal government to guarantee non-regional services and provides the legal basis for establishing a national contracting authority by law Yet after more than two decades Germany has still not introduced such a law meaning that all long-distancetrains need to run solely on a commercial basis

This has led to gaps in the national network of long-distance trains and raises the question of how Germany can implement its so-called lsquoDeutschlandtaktrsquo

23ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

an integrated timetable for 2030 which includes routes not commercially via-ble It also makes it more difficult to run international trains through Germany Operating international trains is usually more costly because of higher coor-dination and administration costs and the need to buy or lease interoperable rolling stock In contrast to many other Eu member states Germany provides no support for long-distance trains in the form of public service obligations (PSOs) and also seems to object toother governments covering the German part of the route with PSOs as a recent feasibility study on a StockholmmdashBrus-sels night train revealed

3 Electrify border crossings to Poland and Czech Republic

Most international long-distance trains today run on electricity which is not only cleaner but also faster Only 61 of Germanyrsquos railway network is elec-trified and only 27 of its 57 border crossings into neighbouring countries are electrified Most non-electrified border crossings are on the eastern borders 13 into the Czech Republic and eight into Poland The lack of electrification usually means that locomotives need to be changed at the border adding to travel times and that many faster trains cannot run on those sections To better connect with the east Germany should urgently electrify the following sections

Q CottbusmdashForstmdashLegnica 138 km electrification would speed up services from Berlin to Wroclaw and krakow

Q DresdenmdashGoumlrlitzmdashZgorzelec 95 km electrification would improve train connections between Dresden and Wrocław

Q RegensburgmdashFurth im Wald 131 km electrification would speed up ser-vices from Munich to Prague to less than four hours

Q NuumlrnbergmdashSchirndingmdashCheb 140 km electrification would reduce travel time between Nuremberg and Prague to less than four hours

copy Natalya Vilman dreamstimecom

24 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can France do to boost European rail services

1 Initiate a national strategy for a modal shift from air to rail

Massive modal shift is no longer an option but a necessity if France is to reach its targets of CO2 emissions Yet there is no long-term plan to reduce the number of flights taken for European travel Such a strategy is much needed as it would allow for long-term planning better coordination with the ERA and better coordination between long-distance and local trains

With an extensive network of railways lines already in place international con-nections do not require any major infrastructure works and couldbe created very quickly What is lacking is an integrated strategy to promote train over air for domestic and European travel France should set clear objectives in modal shift by 2030 and 2050 in accordance with national low carbon strategy (SNBC)

As long- and medium-distance train connections (both day and night ) can be an important asset to reach French climate targets France should create further incentives to boost this modal shift introducing VAT on European flights and reducing VAT on train travel Airport expansion projects in France should also be halted as they undermine efforts towards low emission mobility

2 Ease emergence of new players for long-distance connections

As the European rail market opens private and lsquohistoricrsquo incumbents will have the opportunity to operate new European connections This opening of the Eu-ropean train market will be an opportunity for new train companies to operate these trans-European connections To encourage lsquonewcomersrsquo France should guarantee that the services of these private companies will be able to set up their businesses and operate without obstacles set track access charges to its direct costs level and guarantee that newcomers will have access to public infrastructure and tracks

25ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

The opening of the market could also be an opportunity for incumbents such as SNCF As has been done with Thalys or Eurostar SNCF should initiate a part-nership with other national andor private companies to operate one or several of the European corridors that will be designed

It is quite possible to lsquostart smallrsquo operating only on the sections where infra-structure and rolling stock are compatible (ParismdashBerlin for example) and gradually extend the lines to reach full potential such as ParismdashWarsaw

3 Invest in night train rolling stock

Night trains can be a positive alternative to intra-Eu-ropean flights They can serve both domestic and international destinations However night trains in France have been on a downslide for several years The French government has recently announced that two new national train lines will be reopened This trend should be continued as the number of night trains gradually increases and night train lines extended to international destinations

For the night train renaissance France should in-vest euro150 million each year in rolling stock as the current stock is aging and far too limited This in-vestment will incentivise industries to produce new high-quality wagons designed for the night trains

At night some of the French track capacity is re-served for maintenance work and cannot be usedThis challenge can be overcome by starting with a small number of routes providing alternative routes when needed andor subsidising SNCF Reacute-seau so that maintenance work during the night can be lsquoun-optimisedrsquo that is take place over a longer period but without stopping traffic at night copy

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26 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Spain do to boost European rail services

1 Refurbish upgrade and finalise cross-border connections between Spain Portugal and France

Cross-border connections between Spain and its neighbouring countries need an urgent upgrade to allow smooth fast and convenient passenger trips be-tween major southern European cities In the Basque country the rail lines between Hendaye and Irun should be quickly refurbished to avoid unneces-sary stop-overs and guarantee the integration of French high-speed network (ParismdashBordeauxmdashHendaye) with the Spanish high-speed line in construction between DonostiaBilbao and Vittoria (known as Basque Y) and then towards Madrid and other Spanish cities

In Central Pyrenees the historical line between Pau (Nouvelle Aquitaine) and Zaragoza (Aragon) via the monumental Canfranc International station should be relaunched by building the missing 30 km between Bedous (France) and Canfranc (Spain) This final work will increase freight and passenger connectiv-ity improve cross-border security and boost the economy of isolated regions highly dependent on tourism agriculture and industry

On the Atlantic side the cities of Lisbon and Madrid as well as Santiago de Com-postela (Galicia) and Porto need to be integrated into a high-performance network based on the upgrade of outdated rail tracks This connection would ensure the better cohesion and connection of geographically remote and pe-ripheral cities and regions with the rest of the European capitals

2 Relaunch night train services and long-distance conventional lines

Most of the night time and conventional trains between major southern Euro-pean cities (such as MadridmdashParis BarcelonamdashParis MadridmdashBarcelona Ma-dridmdashLisbon) have been abandoned in the last decade due to aggressive and unfair competition from low-cost airlines and long-distance buses However the climate crisis is pushing citizens towards low-carbon transport such as rail

27ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

Spanish citizens deserve affordable night trains and renovated long-distance trains that allow them to save time carbon and money avoiding expensive night hotels at origin and destination Relaunching cross-regional train lines is also a way to support safe inclusive and sustainable tourism in Mediterranean countries dramatically affected by the Covid crisis and related lockdowns

3 Increase the use of the network by opening the market and levelling the playing field

Spain has the longest high-speed network in Europe (2675 km) but it is the least used with only 13 billion passenger-kilometres in 2018 As a comparison France transported 49 billion passenger-km on a high-speed network of almost equal length (2548 km) When looking at passenger and freight rail together use intensity of the Spanish rail network (34 trains per day per route km) is also very low compared to the rest of Europe (146 in the Netherlands 96 in the UK 78 in Germany 43 in France)

As a large part of the high-speed infrastructure has been financed by the Eu the poor performance of rail in Spain is clearly an inefficient use of public money that should be solved by appropriate regulation and incentives The new law for sustainable mobility in the making is a unique opportunity to reverse those negative trends and fix historical pitfalls The opening of the network to new rail operators planned in 2021 should also contribute to increasing the number of passengers without building any new infrastructure Finally the rules for transport operators should be fair between air road and trains by integrating the environmental and social externalities and incentivising cleaner alternatives

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28

References

BMVI (2020) Trans-Europe Express 20 httpswwwbmvideSharedDocsENDocumentsKinnovative-rail-transport-overnight-21-09-2020pdf__blob=publicationFile (accessed 26 November 2020)

CERRE (2018) Track Access ChargesmdashCase Study Germany httpscerreorgsitescerrefiles180509_CERRE_TrackAccessCharges_CaseStudy_Germa-ny_Finalpdf (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2018) Comprehensive analysis of the existing cross-bor-der rail transport connections and missing links on the internal EU borders httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-detail-publicatione68ec381-62f7-11e8-ab9c-01aa75ed71a1language-en (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2019) Remaining Challenges for EU-wide integrated ticketing and payment services httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-de-tail-publicationaf05b3eb-df43-11e9-9c4e-01aa75ed71a1 (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Court of Auditors (2018) A European high-speed rail network not a reality but an ineffective patchwork ECA Special Report httpswwwecaeuropaeuenPagesDocItemaspxdid=46398 (accessed 26 Novem-ber 2020)

Eurostat (2020) Air passenger transport between the main airports (data sets avia_par_fr avia_par_pl avia_par_de avia_par_es avia_par_b) httpseceuropaeueurostatwebmainhome (accessed 26 November 2020)

Independent Regulatorrsquos Group (IRG) (2020) 8th IRG-Rail Market Monitoring Report httpsirg-raileuirgdocumentsmarket-monitoring (accessed 26 November 2020)

International Railway Journal (2020) Spain urged to rebalance high-speed and suburban rail development 7 August 2020 httpswwwrailjournalcompassengerhigh-speedspain-urged-to-rebalance-high-speed-and-subur-ban-rail-investment (accessed 26 November 2020)

Page 13: Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe...Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe How the 2021 European Year of Rail can˜support the˜European Green Deal and a

13EASY BOOkING

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14

Smart spending Use EU money to improve rail infrastructure capacity and connectivity

EU funding (cohesion funding Connecting Europe Facility Recovery and Resil-ience Facility) makes up an important share of overall transport infrastructure funding especially in the new member states Yet in the past Eu transport funding has not always been used wisely Too much funding went into road and airports and too little into rail This is especially the case for EU cohesion fund-ing around 50 of transport cohesion funding goes into road and only 25 into rail projects Funding decisions are based on plans prepared by the

respective member state and negotiated between member states and the European Commission

European Investment Bank (EIB) transport lending is still supporting unsustainable infrastructure such as airports and new motorway projects Transport is the single largest sector of EIB activity accounting for about 1 in every 4 euros invested by the bank The bank is however in the process of revising both its climate (2020) and transport policies (2021)

Too much money also goes into mega-projects with exploding costs and long delays The Eu-ropean Court of Auditors (2018) cautioned that projects were often chosen based on political de-cisions and not on thorough cost-benefit analyses

3

Only one out of seven border crossings between Germany and Poland is electrifiedThere were once 24 rail links between Germany and Poland of which only seven remain in operation Yet only the border crossing at Frankfurt (Oder) is electrified The trains from Berlin to Warsaw or to Gdansk operate on this line The remaining six border crossings are not yet electrified meaning that trains need to run on diesel The CottbusmdashLegnica link is particularly relevant to connect Berlin to densely populated Southern Poland (Wroclaw Silesia Krakow) To electrify this 138 km link would cost approximately euro100 million but could reduce travel time between Berlin and Wroclaw from currently 45 hours to only 3 hours because Eurocity trains could take a more direct route (currently going through Frankfurt (Oder)) For comparison before the 2nd World War travel time was only 25 hours

PRIORITY

15

The evaluated high-speed projects took 16 years on average cost on average euro25 million per track km but often do not deliver on expectations average speeds rarely reach 200 kmh and only few lines transported more than nine million passengers per year (the benchmark for a successful high-speed line) In contrast small-scale interventions with greater European potential are of-ten not implemented This can be electrification constructing a second track or bypasses to increase capacity and speed or closing smaller missing links on the border

The European Court of Auditors also noted a lack of coordination of cross-border infrastructure projects Member states take a national perspec-tive and do not prioritise closing cross-border gaps This means that infrastructure might have been completed on one side of the border but delayed by years on the other side

The EU should ensure that EU funding

Q Supports modal shift towards rail In the negotiations of the Operational Programmes for Cohesion funding the European Commis-sion should ensure that more budget goes to rail than to road and no new roads are financedin the old member states as they al-ready have a sufficiently dense road network The European Commission should also ask member states to present modal shift tar-gets if they want to access funds for trans-port under the Recovery and Resilience Facility The EIB should in the upcoming review of its Transport Strategy decide to stop funding any airport infrastructure or road network expansion and instead increase funding for electric cross-border rail projects and rolling stock

Q Prioritises rail projects essential for intra-European rail services Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funding should only go into projects that are key to cross-border connectivity (eg for key corridors) and should focus more on low-hanging fruits than on new mega-projects Such inter-ventions should be based on sound cost-benefit analysis When evaluating

Spain has only one international long-distance rail lineSpain has invested massively into high-speed lines over the last decades with euro14 billion (25 of total investment) coming from Eu funds (Inter-national Railway Journal 2020) Yet there is only one international high-speed rail line connecting Barcelona with Montpellier in France The tracks are underused with only two services per day For regional services there are additional border crossings in Portbou-Perpignan (Mediterranean coast) IrunHendaye (Atlantic coast) and Puigcerda (Pyrenees) but none of them is serviced frequently Another difficulty on these regional lines is that trains need to change between standard and Ibe-rian track gauge at the borderThe connection between Spain and Portugal is even worse a rail trip from Madrid to Lisbon (625 km) takes 10h50 and requires three changes as only regional lines operate across borders There are border crossings in Badajoz-Elvas Fregenada-Bar-ca de Alva and Vigo-Porto but they are under-used The only long-distance line to Portugal is a night train from HendayeIrun to Lisbon (currently sus-pended due to Covid-19) The TEN-T network plan foresees a high-speed connection between Madrid and Lisbon as part of the core network but the project is currently not being pursued by either the Portuguese or the Spanish government

16 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

member statesrsquo operational programmes for cohesion fundingrecovery funding the European Commission should suggest to member states that they include rail projects that are key tothe functioning of a European rail network

Q Promotes infrastructure interventions which are accompanied by transformative measures When accessing EU rail infrastructure funding member states should be required to present accompanying policy measures which ensure that the infrastructure is used efficiently

Other policy interventions for supporting European rail

Apart from the above mentioned priorities the EU and member states should address the following obstacles

Q International rail has no strong voice in the current system because member states and incumbent railway operators tend to focus on their own national markets There is also a lack of coordination of infrastructure managers across borders The EU should strengthen the European Rail Agency (ERA) as a traffic control and coordination authority for international rail transport The ERA should be entrusted with forecasting demand assessing the level of required services (destination frequency speed) and allocating capacities The ERA could identify routes that may be of interest to travellers but which are not yet fully exploited and could make this information available to train operators It could also determine which sections of the desired network services would be

Examples of bordercrossings between Spain France Belgium Germany and Poland that need urgent attention

Member States involved Border crossing Important for Required action

Germany mdash Poland Cottbus mdash Forst mdash  Legnica

connecting Berlin with southern Poland electrification of 138 km

France mdash Germany Colmar mdash Freiburg connecting regions build 1 km bridge

Spain mdash France Astigarraga mdash IrunthinspHendaye mdash Bayonne

connecting Bordeaux to northern Spain

upgrade cross-border section

Spain mdash France (Pau) Bedous mdash Canfranc (Zaragoza)

Reconnect central corridor in the Pyrenees

Refurbishment of 30 km railtrack on French side

17SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

commercially viable and where public service obligations (PSOs) would be needed in order to guarantee a service

Q Night train operators and new rail operators have an especially hard time finding trains that can operate in more than one country The second-hand market for interoperable rolling stock and night trains is limited ordering an entire new fleet is prohibitively expensive and no func-tioning leasing market is in place for this specific segment The Eu and member states should help to find new creative finance mechanisms for overcoming the lack of rolling stock and consider establishing a publicly managed rolling stock pool

Q Airlines pay no tax on kerosene receive 85 of allowances of the European Emissions Trading Scheme free of charge and pay no VAT on international tickets This creates an uneven playing field between aviation and rail The European Commission has announced it will review both the EU Energy Taxation Directive and the EU ETS Directive in 2021 It is crucial to use this opportunity to introduce a kerosene tax in-troduce full auctioning for aviation allowances in the EU ETS and create a stronger price for emission allowances

Q Track access charges are prohibitively high in some EU member states EU Regulation suggests that charges should cover only marginal costs but some member states ask for much higher mark ups for example on highly frequented routes or during rush hours This creates an unfair advantage for road transport which pays only infrastructure charges on approximately 3 of the Eu road network For freight rail some member states have reduced charges but not so for passenger rail EU member states should agree to reduce track access charges to direct cost levels This would increase the use of tracks and could bring higher in-come for infrastructure managers in return During the transition period alternative funding to cover losses of infrastructure managers could come from ETS auctioning revenues

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18 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

Why is this important

Rail can help the EU to achieve its climate targets

Rail is the cleanest mode of transport A flight from Paris to Berlin causes at least six times the CO2 emissions of a train journey Counting the also non-CO2 impacts of aviation the flight is responsible for 18 times the climate impact of a rail trip With further electrification and decarbonisation of power generation the carbon emissions of rail could be reduced to close to zero

Intra-European flights on distances less than 1000 km are estimated to cause 28 MtCO2 every year without counting the non-CO2 impacts Seventeen of the 20 most frequented air routes in Europe are for distances less than 700 km In theory almost all of these journeys could be shifted to rail

The better European cities are connected by rail the easier it is to move trans-port away from high-polluting transport modes such as aviation and cars The more attractive and easy-to-use rail services are the more likely it is that people will want to switch

Rail can be a driver for European recovery post-Covid-19

The rail sector employs more than 23 million people (directly and indirectly) and creates a gross value added of euro143 billion of which euro66 billion is created directly by the sector This is larger than the gross value added of air transport The Eu rail supply industry accounts for around 20 of the global market

Rail infrastructure investments usually need more time but add to mid-term stability and growth expectations in the construction sector Some rail in-frastructure modernisation projects could be realised rapidlymdashfor example track switches bypasses European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) The investments needed for the realisation of the Trans-European Transport (TEN-T) core network for example is estimated to create euro45 trillion cumulated GDP and 13 million job-years EU-wide

19SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

Rail connects people cities and countries

In contrast to aviation rail not only services highly frequented core routes but also has a network that reaches into remote regions This network was much more dense 50 years ago both within countries and in border regions While many connections are not in use anymore because of massive divestment from rail many could easily be reinstalled A network of fast long-distance connections combined with dense regional services could make Europeans feel connected to and part of the EU

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20

Annex Specific recommendations for Poland Germany France and Spain

What can Poland do to boost European rail services

1 Create fair conditions for infrastructure access

The current system of infrastructure access charges is extremely asymmetric and strongly favours road over rail transport Rail currently pays infrastructure access charges on 100 of the railway network (including layovers or the use of railway stations) while road (bus) operators pay charges only on 1 of Pol-ish roads and individual drivers pay only for selected sections of motorways representing around 02 of the entire network Infrastructure charges of road and rail should be aligned in all market segmentsmdashincluding international long-distance transport

The second problem is the high level of track access charges for rail operators As a first step track access charges in Poland should be reduced to the level of costs directly induced by the train journey This would reduce charges from the current 60 of total infrastructure maintenance costs to 30 These charges should go entirely to the Railway Fund and thus contribute to the development and construction of new railway lines (as is the case with roads) Maintenance costs should be covered through the general state budget ultimately the sys-tem of charges for transport infrastructure should be dependent on the level of external costs (pollution noise traffic safety etc)

4

21

2 Invest in interoperable rolling stock for international connections including night trains

The lack of interoperable rolling stock is a key obstacle for the launch of new international long-distance connections Due to the very limited number of in-ternational connections and small passenger flows it is not a priority for carrier investment As a result international rail operatorsmdashespecially night trainsmdashhave access only to old wagons of poor quality In addition international trains waste time at borders due to the lack of multi-system locomotives which could run on different voltage and safety systems In Poland an estimated 40 locomo-tives and approximately 350 wagons are needed to operate connections with other Eu countries (Germany Czech Republic Slovakia and Lithuania) To im-prove the quality and frequency of international connections Poland should launch an investment programme for interoperable rolling stock This could also help the country negotiate with the European union on the co-financing of rolling stock or even an Eu-financed rolling stock pool Currently the long-dis-tance segment is the only area of passenger railway in Poland not covered by any EU support programme for rolling stock

3 Elimination of barriers to entry for new railway carriers

One of the basic problems of the international transport offer is its malad-justment to modern market needs Trains run infrequently tickets are much more expensive than domestic services and there are no discounts available on international trains The reason is that the organisation of connections is left to the incumbent railway carriers from individual countries and inflexi-ble procedures for their cooperation (including archaic regulations on tariffs and ticket sales) The example of low-cost airlines shows that an effective instrument for changing this situation is opening the market to competition In the case of commercial services full deregulation of the market should be achieved Where financial support (PSO) is required to maintain traffic compet-itive tenders for carrier selection should be obligatory in accordance with the provisions of the Fourth Railway Package In the case of Poland it is essential to review and clarify the rules for market access The current regulation leaves room for misinterpretation and is commonly used to block the entry of new entrants to the market which may exert positive pressure on the quality scope and accessibility of services for passengers

22 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Germany do to boost European rail services

1 Reduce track access charges for passenger trains

According to Eu law track access charges should generally only reflect direct costs (wear and tear costs) but Germany for instance makes use of an ex-emption and charges full costs for passenger trains (ie including infrastructure maintenance costs) The German track access charges are as a consequence five times as high as the mere direct costs would be (CERRE 2018) This results in very high access charges for train operators accounting for around a third of total operation costs The average costs per kilometre for long-distance trains rose by 18 between 2013 and 2018 For freight rail Germany has already decided to halve its track access charges The same approach to passenger rail could be a first step in incentivising more international services and to make rail more competitive with other transport modes The lost income for infra-structure managers would need to come from Germanyrsquos general budget

2 Establish a competent national authority for long-distance rail

Germany is the only Eu member state without a national contracting authority for rail transport When Germany reformed its rail system in the 1990s it es-tablished in each of the federal states (Bundeslaumlnder) at least one contract-ing authority responsible for organising and ordering regional rail passenger services and for determining public service obligations There are now 27 re-gional contracting authorities but no such authority at federal level Article 87e(4) of the German constitution obliges the federal government to guarantee non-regional services and provides the legal basis for establishing a national contracting authority by law Yet after more than two decades Germany has still not introduced such a law meaning that all long-distancetrains need to run solely on a commercial basis

This has led to gaps in the national network of long-distance trains and raises the question of how Germany can implement its so-called lsquoDeutschlandtaktrsquo

23ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

an integrated timetable for 2030 which includes routes not commercially via-ble It also makes it more difficult to run international trains through Germany Operating international trains is usually more costly because of higher coor-dination and administration costs and the need to buy or lease interoperable rolling stock In contrast to many other Eu member states Germany provides no support for long-distance trains in the form of public service obligations (PSOs) and also seems to object toother governments covering the German part of the route with PSOs as a recent feasibility study on a StockholmmdashBrus-sels night train revealed

3 Electrify border crossings to Poland and Czech Republic

Most international long-distance trains today run on electricity which is not only cleaner but also faster Only 61 of Germanyrsquos railway network is elec-trified and only 27 of its 57 border crossings into neighbouring countries are electrified Most non-electrified border crossings are on the eastern borders 13 into the Czech Republic and eight into Poland The lack of electrification usually means that locomotives need to be changed at the border adding to travel times and that many faster trains cannot run on those sections To better connect with the east Germany should urgently electrify the following sections

Q CottbusmdashForstmdashLegnica 138 km electrification would speed up services from Berlin to Wroclaw and krakow

Q DresdenmdashGoumlrlitzmdashZgorzelec 95 km electrification would improve train connections between Dresden and Wrocław

Q RegensburgmdashFurth im Wald 131 km electrification would speed up ser-vices from Munich to Prague to less than four hours

Q NuumlrnbergmdashSchirndingmdashCheb 140 km electrification would reduce travel time between Nuremberg and Prague to less than four hours

copy Natalya Vilman dreamstimecom

24 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can France do to boost European rail services

1 Initiate a national strategy for a modal shift from air to rail

Massive modal shift is no longer an option but a necessity if France is to reach its targets of CO2 emissions Yet there is no long-term plan to reduce the number of flights taken for European travel Such a strategy is much needed as it would allow for long-term planning better coordination with the ERA and better coordination between long-distance and local trains

With an extensive network of railways lines already in place international con-nections do not require any major infrastructure works and couldbe created very quickly What is lacking is an integrated strategy to promote train over air for domestic and European travel France should set clear objectives in modal shift by 2030 and 2050 in accordance with national low carbon strategy (SNBC)

As long- and medium-distance train connections (both day and night ) can be an important asset to reach French climate targets France should create further incentives to boost this modal shift introducing VAT on European flights and reducing VAT on train travel Airport expansion projects in France should also be halted as they undermine efforts towards low emission mobility

2 Ease emergence of new players for long-distance connections

As the European rail market opens private and lsquohistoricrsquo incumbents will have the opportunity to operate new European connections This opening of the Eu-ropean train market will be an opportunity for new train companies to operate these trans-European connections To encourage lsquonewcomersrsquo France should guarantee that the services of these private companies will be able to set up their businesses and operate without obstacles set track access charges to its direct costs level and guarantee that newcomers will have access to public infrastructure and tracks

25ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

The opening of the market could also be an opportunity for incumbents such as SNCF As has been done with Thalys or Eurostar SNCF should initiate a part-nership with other national andor private companies to operate one or several of the European corridors that will be designed

It is quite possible to lsquostart smallrsquo operating only on the sections where infra-structure and rolling stock are compatible (ParismdashBerlin for example) and gradually extend the lines to reach full potential such as ParismdashWarsaw

3 Invest in night train rolling stock

Night trains can be a positive alternative to intra-Eu-ropean flights They can serve both domestic and international destinations However night trains in France have been on a downslide for several years The French government has recently announced that two new national train lines will be reopened This trend should be continued as the number of night trains gradually increases and night train lines extended to international destinations

For the night train renaissance France should in-vest euro150 million each year in rolling stock as the current stock is aging and far too limited This in-vestment will incentivise industries to produce new high-quality wagons designed for the night trains

At night some of the French track capacity is re-served for maintenance work and cannot be usedThis challenge can be overcome by starting with a small number of routes providing alternative routes when needed andor subsidising SNCF Reacute-seau so that maintenance work during the night can be lsquoun-optimisedrsquo that is take place over a longer period but without stopping traffic at night copy

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26 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Spain do to boost European rail services

1 Refurbish upgrade and finalise cross-border connections between Spain Portugal and France

Cross-border connections between Spain and its neighbouring countries need an urgent upgrade to allow smooth fast and convenient passenger trips be-tween major southern European cities In the Basque country the rail lines between Hendaye and Irun should be quickly refurbished to avoid unneces-sary stop-overs and guarantee the integration of French high-speed network (ParismdashBordeauxmdashHendaye) with the Spanish high-speed line in construction between DonostiaBilbao and Vittoria (known as Basque Y) and then towards Madrid and other Spanish cities

In Central Pyrenees the historical line between Pau (Nouvelle Aquitaine) and Zaragoza (Aragon) via the monumental Canfranc International station should be relaunched by building the missing 30 km between Bedous (France) and Canfranc (Spain) This final work will increase freight and passenger connectiv-ity improve cross-border security and boost the economy of isolated regions highly dependent on tourism agriculture and industry

On the Atlantic side the cities of Lisbon and Madrid as well as Santiago de Com-postela (Galicia) and Porto need to be integrated into a high-performance network based on the upgrade of outdated rail tracks This connection would ensure the better cohesion and connection of geographically remote and pe-ripheral cities and regions with the rest of the European capitals

2 Relaunch night train services and long-distance conventional lines

Most of the night time and conventional trains between major southern Euro-pean cities (such as MadridmdashParis BarcelonamdashParis MadridmdashBarcelona Ma-dridmdashLisbon) have been abandoned in the last decade due to aggressive and unfair competition from low-cost airlines and long-distance buses However the climate crisis is pushing citizens towards low-carbon transport such as rail

27ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

Spanish citizens deserve affordable night trains and renovated long-distance trains that allow them to save time carbon and money avoiding expensive night hotels at origin and destination Relaunching cross-regional train lines is also a way to support safe inclusive and sustainable tourism in Mediterranean countries dramatically affected by the Covid crisis and related lockdowns

3 Increase the use of the network by opening the market and levelling the playing field

Spain has the longest high-speed network in Europe (2675 km) but it is the least used with only 13 billion passenger-kilometres in 2018 As a comparison France transported 49 billion passenger-km on a high-speed network of almost equal length (2548 km) When looking at passenger and freight rail together use intensity of the Spanish rail network (34 trains per day per route km) is also very low compared to the rest of Europe (146 in the Netherlands 96 in the UK 78 in Germany 43 in France)

As a large part of the high-speed infrastructure has been financed by the Eu the poor performance of rail in Spain is clearly an inefficient use of public money that should be solved by appropriate regulation and incentives The new law for sustainable mobility in the making is a unique opportunity to reverse those negative trends and fix historical pitfalls The opening of the network to new rail operators planned in 2021 should also contribute to increasing the number of passengers without building any new infrastructure Finally the rules for transport operators should be fair between air road and trains by integrating the environmental and social externalities and incentivising cleaner alternatives

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References

BMVI (2020) Trans-Europe Express 20 httpswwwbmvideSharedDocsENDocumentsKinnovative-rail-transport-overnight-21-09-2020pdf__blob=publicationFile (accessed 26 November 2020)

CERRE (2018) Track Access ChargesmdashCase Study Germany httpscerreorgsitescerrefiles180509_CERRE_TrackAccessCharges_CaseStudy_Germa-ny_Finalpdf (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2018) Comprehensive analysis of the existing cross-bor-der rail transport connections and missing links on the internal EU borders httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-detail-publicatione68ec381-62f7-11e8-ab9c-01aa75ed71a1language-en (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2019) Remaining Challenges for EU-wide integrated ticketing and payment services httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-de-tail-publicationaf05b3eb-df43-11e9-9c4e-01aa75ed71a1 (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Court of Auditors (2018) A European high-speed rail network not a reality but an ineffective patchwork ECA Special Report httpswwwecaeuropaeuenPagesDocItemaspxdid=46398 (accessed 26 Novem-ber 2020)

Eurostat (2020) Air passenger transport between the main airports (data sets avia_par_fr avia_par_pl avia_par_de avia_par_es avia_par_b) httpseceuropaeueurostatwebmainhome (accessed 26 November 2020)

Independent Regulatorrsquos Group (IRG) (2020) 8th IRG-Rail Market Monitoring Report httpsirg-raileuirgdocumentsmarket-monitoring (accessed 26 November 2020)

International Railway Journal (2020) Spain urged to rebalance high-speed and suburban rail development 7 August 2020 httpswwwrailjournalcompassengerhigh-speedspain-urged-to-rebalance-high-speed-and-subur-ban-rail-investment (accessed 26 November 2020)

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14

Smart spending Use EU money to improve rail infrastructure capacity and connectivity

EU funding (cohesion funding Connecting Europe Facility Recovery and Resil-ience Facility) makes up an important share of overall transport infrastructure funding especially in the new member states Yet in the past Eu transport funding has not always been used wisely Too much funding went into road and airports and too little into rail This is especially the case for EU cohesion fund-ing around 50 of transport cohesion funding goes into road and only 25 into rail projects Funding decisions are based on plans prepared by the

respective member state and negotiated between member states and the European Commission

European Investment Bank (EIB) transport lending is still supporting unsustainable infrastructure such as airports and new motorway projects Transport is the single largest sector of EIB activity accounting for about 1 in every 4 euros invested by the bank The bank is however in the process of revising both its climate (2020) and transport policies (2021)

Too much money also goes into mega-projects with exploding costs and long delays The Eu-ropean Court of Auditors (2018) cautioned that projects were often chosen based on political de-cisions and not on thorough cost-benefit analyses

3

Only one out of seven border crossings between Germany and Poland is electrifiedThere were once 24 rail links between Germany and Poland of which only seven remain in operation Yet only the border crossing at Frankfurt (Oder) is electrified The trains from Berlin to Warsaw or to Gdansk operate on this line The remaining six border crossings are not yet electrified meaning that trains need to run on diesel The CottbusmdashLegnica link is particularly relevant to connect Berlin to densely populated Southern Poland (Wroclaw Silesia Krakow) To electrify this 138 km link would cost approximately euro100 million but could reduce travel time between Berlin and Wroclaw from currently 45 hours to only 3 hours because Eurocity trains could take a more direct route (currently going through Frankfurt (Oder)) For comparison before the 2nd World War travel time was only 25 hours

PRIORITY

15

The evaluated high-speed projects took 16 years on average cost on average euro25 million per track km but often do not deliver on expectations average speeds rarely reach 200 kmh and only few lines transported more than nine million passengers per year (the benchmark for a successful high-speed line) In contrast small-scale interventions with greater European potential are of-ten not implemented This can be electrification constructing a second track or bypasses to increase capacity and speed or closing smaller missing links on the border

The European Court of Auditors also noted a lack of coordination of cross-border infrastructure projects Member states take a national perspec-tive and do not prioritise closing cross-border gaps This means that infrastructure might have been completed on one side of the border but delayed by years on the other side

The EU should ensure that EU funding

Q Supports modal shift towards rail In the negotiations of the Operational Programmes for Cohesion funding the European Commis-sion should ensure that more budget goes to rail than to road and no new roads are financedin the old member states as they al-ready have a sufficiently dense road network The European Commission should also ask member states to present modal shift tar-gets if they want to access funds for trans-port under the Recovery and Resilience Facility The EIB should in the upcoming review of its Transport Strategy decide to stop funding any airport infrastructure or road network expansion and instead increase funding for electric cross-border rail projects and rolling stock

Q Prioritises rail projects essential for intra-European rail services Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funding should only go into projects that are key to cross-border connectivity (eg for key corridors) and should focus more on low-hanging fruits than on new mega-projects Such inter-ventions should be based on sound cost-benefit analysis When evaluating

Spain has only one international long-distance rail lineSpain has invested massively into high-speed lines over the last decades with euro14 billion (25 of total investment) coming from Eu funds (Inter-national Railway Journal 2020) Yet there is only one international high-speed rail line connecting Barcelona with Montpellier in France The tracks are underused with only two services per day For regional services there are additional border crossings in Portbou-Perpignan (Mediterranean coast) IrunHendaye (Atlantic coast) and Puigcerda (Pyrenees) but none of them is serviced frequently Another difficulty on these regional lines is that trains need to change between standard and Ibe-rian track gauge at the borderThe connection between Spain and Portugal is even worse a rail trip from Madrid to Lisbon (625 km) takes 10h50 and requires three changes as only regional lines operate across borders There are border crossings in Badajoz-Elvas Fregenada-Bar-ca de Alva and Vigo-Porto but they are under-used The only long-distance line to Portugal is a night train from HendayeIrun to Lisbon (currently sus-pended due to Covid-19) The TEN-T network plan foresees a high-speed connection between Madrid and Lisbon as part of the core network but the project is currently not being pursued by either the Portuguese or the Spanish government

16 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

member statesrsquo operational programmes for cohesion fundingrecovery funding the European Commission should suggest to member states that they include rail projects that are key tothe functioning of a European rail network

Q Promotes infrastructure interventions which are accompanied by transformative measures When accessing EU rail infrastructure funding member states should be required to present accompanying policy measures which ensure that the infrastructure is used efficiently

Other policy interventions for supporting European rail

Apart from the above mentioned priorities the EU and member states should address the following obstacles

Q International rail has no strong voice in the current system because member states and incumbent railway operators tend to focus on their own national markets There is also a lack of coordination of infrastructure managers across borders The EU should strengthen the European Rail Agency (ERA) as a traffic control and coordination authority for international rail transport The ERA should be entrusted with forecasting demand assessing the level of required services (destination frequency speed) and allocating capacities The ERA could identify routes that may be of interest to travellers but which are not yet fully exploited and could make this information available to train operators It could also determine which sections of the desired network services would be

Examples of bordercrossings between Spain France Belgium Germany and Poland that need urgent attention

Member States involved Border crossing Important for Required action

Germany mdash Poland Cottbus mdash Forst mdash  Legnica

connecting Berlin with southern Poland electrification of 138 km

France mdash Germany Colmar mdash Freiburg connecting regions build 1 km bridge

Spain mdash France Astigarraga mdash IrunthinspHendaye mdash Bayonne

connecting Bordeaux to northern Spain

upgrade cross-border section

Spain mdash France (Pau) Bedous mdash Canfranc (Zaragoza)

Reconnect central corridor in the Pyrenees

Refurbishment of 30 km railtrack on French side

17SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

commercially viable and where public service obligations (PSOs) would be needed in order to guarantee a service

Q Night train operators and new rail operators have an especially hard time finding trains that can operate in more than one country The second-hand market for interoperable rolling stock and night trains is limited ordering an entire new fleet is prohibitively expensive and no func-tioning leasing market is in place for this specific segment The Eu and member states should help to find new creative finance mechanisms for overcoming the lack of rolling stock and consider establishing a publicly managed rolling stock pool

Q Airlines pay no tax on kerosene receive 85 of allowances of the European Emissions Trading Scheme free of charge and pay no VAT on international tickets This creates an uneven playing field between aviation and rail The European Commission has announced it will review both the EU Energy Taxation Directive and the EU ETS Directive in 2021 It is crucial to use this opportunity to introduce a kerosene tax in-troduce full auctioning for aviation allowances in the EU ETS and create a stronger price for emission allowances

Q Track access charges are prohibitively high in some EU member states EU Regulation suggests that charges should cover only marginal costs but some member states ask for much higher mark ups for example on highly frequented routes or during rush hours This creates an unfair advantage for road transport which pays only infrastructure charges on approximately 3 of the Eu road network For freight rail some member states have reduced charges but not so for passenger rail EU member states should agree to reduce track access charges to direct cost levels This would increase the use of tracks and could bring higher in-come for infrastructure managers in return During the transition period alternative funding to cover losses of infrastructure managers could come from ETS auctioning revenues

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18 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

Why is this important

Rail can help the EU to achieve its climate targets

Rail is the cleanest mode of transport A flight from Paris to Berlin causes at least six times the CO2 emissions of a train journey Counting the also non-CO2 impacts of aviation the flight is responsible for 18 times the climate impact of a rail trip With further electrification and decarbonisation of power generation the carbon emissions of rail could be reduced to close to zero

Intra-European flights on distances less than 1000 km are estimated to cause 28 MtCO2 every year without counting the non-CO2 impacts Seventeen of the 20 most frequented air routes in Europe are for distances less than 700 km In theory almost all of these journeys could be shifted to rail

The better European cities are connected by rail the easier it is to move trans-port away from high-polluting transport modes such as aviation and cars The more attractive and easy-to-use rail services are the more likely it is that people will want to switch

Rail can be a driver for European recovery post-Covid-19

The rail sector employs more than 23 million people (directly and indirectly) and creates a gross value added of euro143 billion of which euro66 billion is created directly by the sector This is larger than the gross value added of air transport The Eu rail supply industry accounts for around 20 of the global market

Rail infrastructure investments usually need more time but add to mid-term stability and growth expectations in the construction sector Some rail in-frastructure modernisation projects could be realised rapidlymdashfor example track switches bypasses European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) The investments needed for the realisation of the Trans-European Transport (TEN-T) core network for example is estimated to create euro45 trillion cumulated GDP and 13 million job-years EU-wide

19SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

Rail connects people cities and countries

In contrast to aviation rail not only services highly frequented core routes but also has a network that reaches into remote regions This network was much more dense 50 years ago both within countries and in border regions While many connections are not in use anymore because of massive divestment from rail many could easily be reinstalled A network of fast long-distance connections combined with dense regional services could make Europeans feel connected to and part of the EU

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20

Annex Specific recommendations for Poland Germany France and Spain

What can Poland do to boost European rail services

1 Create fair conditions for infrastructure access

The current system of infrastructure access charges is extremely asymmetric and strongly favours road over rail transport Rail currently pays infrastructure access charges on 100 of the railway network (including layovers or the use of railway stations) while road (bus) operators pay charges only on 1 of Pol-ish roads and individual drivers pay only for selected sections of motorways representing around 02 of the entire network Infrastructure charges of road and rail should be aligned in all market segmentsmdashincluding international long-distance transport

The second problem is the high level of track access charges for rail operators As a first step track access charges in Poland should be reduced to the level of costs directly induced by the train journey This would reduce charges from the current 60 of total infrastructure maintenance costs to 30 These charges should go entirely to the Railway Fund and thus contribute to the development and construction of new railway lines (as is the case with roads) Maintenance costs should be covered through the general state budget ultimately the sys-tem of charges for transport infrastructure should be dependent on the level of external costs (pollution noise traffic safety etc)

4

21

2 Invest in interoperable rolling stock for international connections including night trains

The lack of interoperable rolling stock is a key obstacle for the launch of new international long-distance connections Due to the very limited number of in-ternational connections and small passenger flows it is not a priority for carrier investment As a result international rail operatorsmdashespecially night trainsmdashhave access only to old wagons of poor quality In addition international trains waste time at borders due to the lack of multi-system locomotives which could run on different voltage and safety systems In Poland an estimated 40 locomo-tives and approximately 350 wagons are needed to operate connections with other Eu countries (Germany Czech Republic Slovakia and Lithuania) To im-prove the quality and frequency of international connections Poland should launch an investment programme for interoperable rolling stock This could also help the country negotiate with the European union on the co-financing of rolling stock or even an Eu-financed rolling stock pool Currently the long-dis-tance segment is the only area of passenger railway in Poland not covered by any EU support programme for rolling stock

3 Elimination of barriers to entry for new railway carriers

One of the basic problems of the international transport offer is its malad-justment to modern market needs Trains run infrequently tickets are much more expensive than domestic services and there are no discounts available on international trains The reason is that the organisation of connections is left to the incumbent railway carriers from individual countries and inflexi-ble procedures for their cooperation (including archaic regulations on tariffs and ticket sales) The example of low-cost airlines shows that an effective instrument for changing this situation is opening the market to competition In the case of commercial services full deregulation of the market should be achieved Where financial support (PSO) is required to maintain traffic compet-itive tenders for carrier selection should be obligatory in accordance with the provisions of the Fourth Railway Package In the case of Poland it is essential to review and clarify the rules for market access The current regulation leaves room for misinterpretation and is commonly used to block the entry of new entrants to the market which may exert positive pressure on the quality scope and accessibility of services for passengers

22 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Germany do to boost European rail services

1 Reduce track access charges for passenger trains

According to Eu law track access charges should generally only reflect direct costs (wear and tear costs) but Germany for instance makes use of an ex-emption and charges full costs for passenger trains (ie including infrastructure maintenance costs) The German track access charges are as a consequence five times as high as the mere direct costs would be (CERRE 2018) This results in very high access charges for train operators accounting for around a third of total operation costs The average costs per kilometre for long-distance trains rose by 18 between 2013 and 2018 For freight rail Germany has already decided to halve its track access charges The same approach to passenger rail could be a first step in incentivising more international services and to make rail more competitive with other transport modes The lost income for infra-structure managers would need to come from Germanyrsquos general budget

2 Establish a competent national authority for long-distance rail

Germany is the only Eu member state without a national contracting authority for rail transport When Germany reformed its rail system in the 1990s it es-tablished in each of the federal states (Bundeslaumlnder) at least one contract-ing authority responsible for organising and ordering regional rail passenger services and for determining public service obligations There are now 27 re-gional contracting authorities but no such authority at federal level Article 87e(4) of the German constitution obliges the federal government to guarantee non-regional services and provides the legal basis for establishing a national contracting authority by law Yet after more than two decades Germany has still not introduced such a law meaning that all long-distancetrains need to run solely on a commercial basis

This has led to gaps in the national network of long-distance trains and raises the question of how Germany can implement its so-called lsquoDeutschlandtaktrsquo

23ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

an integrated timetable for 2030 which includes routes not commercially via-ble It also makes it more difficult to run international trains through Germany Operating international trains is usually more costly because of higher coor-dination and administration costs and the need to buy or lease interoperable rolling stock In contrast to many other Eu member states Germany provides no support for long-distance trains in the form of public service obligations (PSOs) and also seems to object toother governments covering the German part of the route with PSOs as a recent feasibility study on a StockholmmdashBrus-sels night train revealed

3 Electrify border crossings to Poland and Czech Republic

Most international long-distance trains today run on electricity which is not only cleaner but also faster Only 61 of Germanyrsquos railway network is elec-trified and only 27 of its 57 border crossings into neighbouring countries are electrified Most non-electrified border crossings are on the eastern borders 13 into the Czech Republic and eight into Poland The lack of electrification usually means that locomotives need to be changed at the border adding to travel times and that many faster trains cannot run on those sections To better connect with the east Germany should urgently electrify the following sections

Q CottbusmdashForstmdashLegnica 138 km electrification would speed up services from Berlin to Wroclaw and krakow

Q DresdenmdashGoumlrlitzmdashZgorzelec 95 km electrification would improve train connections between Dresden and Wrocław

Q RegensburgmdashFurth im Wald 131 km electrification would speed up ser-vices from Munich to Prague to less than four hours

Q NuumlrnbergmdashSchirndingmdashCheb 140 km electrification would reduce travel time between Nuremberg and Prague to less than four hours

copy Natalya Vilman dreamstimecom

24 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can France do to boost European rail services

1 Initiate a national strategy for a modal shift from air to rail

Massive modal shift is no longer an option but a necessity if France is to reach its targets of CO2 emissions Yet there is no long-term plan to reduce the number of flights taken for European travel Such a strategy is much needed as it would allow for long-term planning better coordination with the ERA and better coordination between long-distance and local trains

With an extensive network of railways lines already in place international con-nections do not require any major infrastructure works and couldbe created very quickly What is lacking is an integrated strategy to promote train over air for domestic and European travel France should set clear objectives in modal shift by 2030 and 2050 in accordance with national low carbon strategy (SNBC)

As long- and medium-distance train connections (both day and night ) can be an important asset to reach French climate targets France should create further incentives to boost this modal shift introducing VAT on European flights and reducing VAT on train travel Airport expansion projects in France should also be halted as they undermine efforts towards low emission mobility

2 Ease emergence of new players for long-distance connections

As the European rail market opens private and lsquohistoricrsquo incumbents will have the opportunity to operate new European connections This opening of the Eu-ropean train market will be an opportunity for new train companies to operate these trans-European connections To encourage lsquonewcomersrsquo France should guarantee that the services of these private companies will be able to set up their businesses and operate without obstacles set track access charges to its direct costs level and guarantee that newcomers will have access to public infrastructure and tracks

25ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

The opening of the market could also be an opportunity for incumbents such as SNCF As has been done with Thalys or Eurostar SNCF should initiate a part-nership with other national andor private companies to operate one or several of the European corridors that will be designed

It is quite possible to lsquostart smallrsquo operating only on the sections where infra-structure and rolling stock are compatible (ParismdashBerlin for example) and gradually extend the lines to reach full potential such as ParismdashWarsaw

3 Invest in night train rolling stock

Night trains can be a positive alternative to intra-Eu-ropean flights They can serve both domestic and international destinations However night trains in France have been on a downslide for several years The French government has recently announced that two new national train lines will be reopened This trend should be continued as the number of night trains gradually increases and night train lines extended to international destinations

For the night train renaissance France should in-vest euro150 million each year in rolling stock as the current stock is aging and far too limited This in-vestment will incentivise industries to produce new high-quality wagons designed for the night trains

At night some of the French track capacity is re-served for maintenance work and cannot be usedThis challenge can be overcome by starting with a small number of routes providing alternative routes when needed andor subsidising SNCF Reacute-seau so that maintenance work during the night can be lsquoun-optimisedrsquo that is take place over a longer period but without stopping traffic at night copy

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26 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Spain do to boost European rail services

1 Refurbish upgrade and finalise cross-border connections between Spain Portugal and France

Cross-border connections between Spain and its neighbouring countries need an urgent upgrade to allow smooth fast and convenient passenger trips be-tween major southern European cities In the Basque country the rail lines between Hendaye and Irun should be quickly refurbished to avoid unneces-sary stop-overs and guarantee the integration of French high-speed network (ParismdashBordeauxmdashHendaye) with the Spanish high-speed line in construction between DonostiaBilbao and Vittoria (known as Basque Y) and then towards Madrid and other Spanish cities

In Central Pyrenees the historical line between Pau (Nouvelle Aquitaine) and Zaragoza (Aragon) via the monumental Canfranc International station should be relaunched by building the missing 30 km between Bedous (France) and Canfranc (Spain) This final work will increase freight and passenger connectiv-ity improve cross-border security and boost the economy of isolated regions highly dependent on tourism agriculture and industry

On the Atlantic side the cities of Lisbon and Madrid as well as Santiago de Com-postela (Galicia) and Porto need to be integrated into a high-performance network based on the upgrade of outdated rail tracks This connection would ensure the better cohesion and connection of geographically remote and pe-ripheral cities and regions with the rest of the European capitals

2 Relaunch night train services and long-distance conventional lines

Most of the night time and conventional trains between major southern Euro-pean cities (such as MadridmdashParis BarcelonamdashParis MadridmdashBarcelona Ma-dridmdashLisbon) have been abandoned in the last decade due to aggressive and unfair competition from low-cost airlines and long-distance buses However the climate crisis is pushing citizens towards low-carbon transport such as rail

27ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

Spanish citizens deserve affordable night trains and renovated long-distance trains that allow them to save time carbon and money avoiding expensive night hotels at origin and destination Relaunching cross-regional train lines is also a way to support safe inclusive and sustainable tourism in Mediterranean countries dramatically affected by the Covid crisis and related lockdowns

3 Increase the use of the network by opening the market and levelling the playing field

Spain has the longest high-speed network in Europe (2675 km) but it is the least used with only 13 billion passenger-kilometres in 2018 As a comparison France transported 49 billion passenger-km on a high-speed network of almost equal length (2548 km) When looking at passenger and freight rail together use intensity of the Spanish rail network (34 trains per day per route km) is also very low compared to the rest of Europe (146 in the Netherlands 96 in the UK 78 in Germany 43 in France)

As a large part of the high-speed infrastructure has been financed by the Eu the poor performance of rail in Spain is clearly an inefficient use of public money that should be solved by appropriate regulation and incentives The new law for sustainable mobility in the making is a unique opportunity to reverse those negative trends and fix historical pitfalls The opening of the network to new rail operators planned in 2021 should also contribute to increasing the number of passengers without building any new infrastructure Finally the rules for transport operators should be fair between air road and trains by integrating the environmental and social externalities and incentivising cleaner alternatives

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References

BMVI (2020) Trans-Europe Express 20 httpswwwbmvideSharedDocsENDocumentsKinnovative-rail-transport-overnight-21-09-2020pdf__blob=publicationFile (accessed 26 November 2020)

CERRE (2018) Track Access ChargesmdashCase Study Germany httpscerreorgsitescerrefiles180509_CERRE_TrackAccessCharges_CaseStudy_Germa-ny_Finalpdf (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2018) Comprehensive analysis of the existing cross-bor-der rail transport connections and missing links on the internal EU borders httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-detail-publicatione68ec381-62f7-11e8-ab9c-01aa75ed71a1language-en (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2019) Remaining Challenges for EU-wide integrated ticketing and payment services httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-de-tail-publicationaf05b3eb-df43-11e9-9c4e-01aa75ed71a1 (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Court of Auditors (2018) A European high-speed rail network not a reality but an ineffective patchwork ECA Special Report httpswwwecaeuropaeuenPagesDocItemaspxdid=46398 (accessed 26 Novem-ber 2020)

Eurostat (2020) Air passenger transport between the main airports (data sets avia_par_fr avia_par_pl avia_par_de avia_par_es avia_par_b) httpseceuropaeueurostatwebmainhome (accessed 26 November 2020)

Independent Regulatorrsquos Group (IRG) (2020) 8th IRG-Rail Market Monitoring Report httpsirg-raileuirgdocumentsmarket-monitoring (accessed 26 November 2020)

International Railway Journal (2020) Spain urged to rebalance high-speed and suburban rail development 7 August 2020 httpswwwrailjournalcompassengerhigh-speedspain-urged-to-rebalance-high-speed-and-subur-ban-rail-investment (accessed 26 November 2020)

Page 15: Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe...Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe How the 2021 European Year of Rail can˜support the˜European Green Deal and a

15

The evaluated high-speed projects took 16 years on average cost on average euro25 million per track km but often do not deliver on expectations average speeds rarely reach 200 kmh and only few lines transported more than nine million passengers per year (the benchmark for a successful high-speed line) In contrast small-scale interventions with greater European potential are of-ten not implemented This can be electrification constructing a second track or bypasses to increase capacity and speed or closing smaller missing links on the border

The European Court of Auditors also noted a lack of coordination of cross-border infrastructure projects Member states take a national perspec-tive and do not prioritise closing cross-border gaps This means that infrastructure might have been completed on one side of the border but delayed by years on the other side

The EU should ensure that EU funding

Q Supports modal shift towards rail In the negotiations of the Operational Programmes for Cohesion funding the European Commis-sion should ensure that more budget goes to rail than to road and no new roads are financedin the old member states as they al-ready have a sufficiently dense road network The European Commission should also ask member states to present modal shift tar-gets if they want to access funds for trans-port under the Recovery and Resilience Facility The EIB should in the upcoming review of its Transport Strategy decide to stop funding any airport infrastructure or road network expansion and instead increase funding for electric cross-border rail projects and rolling stock

Q Prioritises rail projects essential for intra-European rail services Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funding should only go into projects that are key to cross-border connectivity (eg for key corridors) and should focus more on low-hanging fruits than on new mega-projects Such inter-ventions should be based on sound cost-benefit analysis When evaluating

Spain has only one international long-distance rail lineSpain has invested massively into high-speed lines over the last decades with euro14 billion (25 of total investment) coming from Eu funds (Inter-national Railway Journal 2020) Yet there is only one international high-speed rail line connecting Barcelona with Montpellier in France The tracks are underused with only two services per day For regional services there are additional border crossings in Portbou-Perpignan (Mediterranean coast) IrunHendaye (Atlantic coast) and Puigcerda (Pyrenees) but none of them is serviced frequently Another difficulty on these regional lines is that trains need to change between standard and Ibe-rian track gauge at the borderThe connection between Spain and Portugal is even worse a rail trip from Madrid to Lisbon (625 km) takes 10h50 and requires three changes as only regional lines operate across borders There are border crossings in Badajoz-Elvas Fregenada-Bar-ca de Alva and Vigo-Porto but they are under-used The only long-distance line to Portugal is a night train from HendayeIrun to Lisbon (currently sus-pended due to Covid-19) The TEN-T network plan foresees a high-speed connection between Madrid and Lisbon as part of the core network but the project is currently not being pursued by either the Portuguese or the Spanish government

16 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

member statesrsquo operational programmes for cohesion fundingrecovery funding the European Commission should suggest to member states that they include rail projects that are key tothe functioning of a European rail network

Q Promotes infrastructure interventions which are accompanied by transformative measures When accessing EU rail infrastructure funding member states should be required to present accompanying policy measures which ensure that the infrastructure is used efficiently

Other policy interventions for supporting European rail

Apart from the above mentioned priorities the EU and member states should address the following obstacles

Q International rail has no strong voice in the current system because member states and incumbent railway operators tend to focus on their own national markets There is also a lack of coordination of infrastructure managers across borders The EU should strengthen the European Rail Agency (ERA) as a traffic control and coordination authority for international rail transport The ERA should be entrusted with forecasting demand assessing the level of required services (destination frequency speed) and allocating capacities The ERA could identify routes that may be of interest to travellers but which are not yet fully exploited and could make this information available to train operators It could also determine which sections of the desired network services would be

Examples of bordercrossings between Spain France Belgium Germany and Poland that need urgent attention

Member States involved Border crossing Important for Required action

Germany mdash Poland Cottbus mdash Forst mdash  Legnica

connecting Berlin with southern Poland electrification of 138 km

France mdash Germany Colmar mdash Freiburg connecting regions build 1 km bridge

Spain mdash France Astigarraga mdash IrunthinspHendaye mdash Bayonne

connecting Bordeaux to northern Spain

upgrade cross-border section

Spain mdash France (Pau) Bedous mdash Canfranc (Zaragoza)

Reconnect central corridor in the Pyrenees

Refurbishment of 30 km railtrack on French side

17SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

commercially viable and where public service obligations (PSOs) would be needed in order to guarantee a service

Q Night train operators and new rail operators have an especially hard time finding trains that can operate in more than one country The second-hand market for interoperable rolling stock and night trains is limited ordering an entire new fleet is prohibitively expensive and no func-tioning leasing market is in place for this specific segment The Eu and member states should help to find new creative finance mechanisms for overcoming the lack of rolling stock and consider establishing a publicly managed rolling stock pool

Q Airlines pay no tax on kerosene receive 85 of allowances of the European Emissions Trading Scheme free of charge and pay no VAT on international tickets This creates an uneven playing field between aviation and rail The European Commission has announced it will review both the EU Energy Taxation Directive and the EU ETS Directive in 2021 It is crucial to use this opportunity to introduce a kerosene tax in-troduce full auctioning for aviation allowances in the EU ETS and create a stronger price for emission allowances

Q Track access charges are prohibitively high in some EU member states EU Regulation suggests that charges should cover only marginal costs but some member states ask for much higher mark ups for example on highly frequented routes or during rush hours This creates an unfair advantage for road transport which pays only infrastructure charges on approximately 3 of the Eu road network For freight rail some member states have reduced charges but not so for passenger rail EU member states should agree to reduce track access charges to direct cost levels This would increase the use of tracks and could bring higher in-come for infrastructure managers in return During the transition period alternative funding to cover losses of infrastructure managers could come from ETS auctioning revenues

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18 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

Why is this important

Rail can help the EU to achieve its climate targets

Rail is the cleanest mode of transport A flight from Paris to Berlin causes at least six times the CO2 emissions of a train journey Counting the also non-CO2 impacts of aviation the flight is responsible for 18 times the climate impact of a rail trip With further electrification and decarbonisation of power generation the carbon emissions of rail could be reduced to close to zero

Intra-European flights on distances less than 1000 km are estimated to cause 28 MtCO2 every year without counting the non-CO2 impacts Seventeen of the 20 most frequented air routes in Europe are for distances less than 700 km In theory almost all of these journeys could be shifted to rail

The better European cities are connected by rail the easier it is to move trans-port away from high-polluting transport modes such as aviation and cars The more attractive and easy-to-use rail services are the more likely it is that people will want to switch

Rail can be a driver for European recovery post-Covid-19

The rail sector employs more than 23 million people (directly and indirectly) and creates a gross value added of euro143 billion of which euro66 billion is created directly by the sector This is larger than the gross value added of air transport The Eu rail supply industry accounts for around 20 of the global market

Rail infrastructure investments usually need more time but add to mid-term stability and growth expectations in the construction sector Some rail in-frastructure modernisation projects could be realised rapidlymdashfor example track switches bypasses European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) The investments needed for the realisation of the Trans-European Transport (TEN-T) core network for example is estimated to create euro45 trillion cumulated GDP and 13 million job-years EU-wide

19SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

Rail connects people cities and countries

In contrast to aviation rail not only services highly frequented core routes but also has a network that reaches into remote regions This network was much more dense 50 years ago both within countries and in border regions While many connections are not in use anymore because of massive divestment from rail many could easily be reinstalled A network of fast long-distance connections combined with dense regional services could make Europeans feel connected to and part of the EU

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20

Annex Specific recommendations for Poland Germany France and Spain

What can Poland do to boost European rail services

1 Create fair conditions for infrastructure access

The current system of infrastructure access charges is extremely asymmetric and strongly favours road over rail transport Rail currently pays infrastructure access charges on 100 of the railway network (including layovers or the use of railway stations) while road (bus) operators pay charges only on 1 of Pol-ish roads and individual drivers pay only for selected sections of motorways representing around 02 of the entire network Infrastructure charges of road and rail should be aligned in all market segmentsmdashincluding international long-distance transport

The second problem is the high level of track access charges for rail operators As a first step track access charges in Poland should be reduced to the level of costs directly induced by the train journey This would reduce charges from the current 60 of total infrastructure maintenance costs to 30 These charges should go entirely to the Railway Fund and thus contribute to the development and construction of new railway lines (as is the case with roads) Maintenance costs should be covered through the general state budget ultimately the sys-tem of charges for transport infrastructure should be dependent on the level of external costs (pollution noise traffic safety etc)

4

21

2 Invest in interoperable rolling stock for international connections including night trains

The lack of interoperable rolling stock is a key obstacle for the launch of new international long-distance connections Due to the very limited number of in-ternational connections and small passenger flows it is not a priority for carrier investment As a result international rail operatorsmdashespecially night trainsmdashhave access only to old wagons of poor quality In addition international trains waste time at borders due to the lack of multi-system locomotives which could run on different voltage and safety systems In Poland an estimated 40 locomo-tives and approximately 350 wagons are needed to operate connections with other Eu countries (Germany Czech Republic Slovakia and Lithuania) To im-prove the quality and frequency of international connections Poland should launch an investment programme for interoperable rolling stock This could also help the country negotiate with the European union on the co-financing of rolling stock or even an Eu-financed rolling stock pool Currently the long-dis-tance segment is the only area of passenger railway in Poland not covered by any EU support programme for rolling stock

3 Elimination of barriers to entry for new railway carriers

One of the basic problems of the international transport offer is its malad-justment to modern market needs Trains run infrequently tickets are much more expensive than domestic services and there are no discounts available on international trains The reason is that the organisation of connections is left to the incumbent railway carriers from individual countries and inflexi-ble procedures for their cooperation (including archaic regulations on tariffs and ticket sales) The example of low-cost airlines shows that an effective instrument for changing this situation is opening the market to competition In the case of commercial services full deregulation of the market should be achieved Where financial support (PSO) is required to maintain traffic compet-itive tenders for carrier selection should be obligatory in accordance with the provisions of the Fourth Railway Package In the case of Poland it is essential to review and clarify the rules for market access The current regulation leaves room for misinterpretation and is commonly used to block the entry of new entrants to the market which may exert positive pressure on the quality scope and accessibility of services for passengers

22 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Germany do to boost European rail services

1 Reduce track access charges for passenger trains

According to Eu law track access charges should generally only reflect direct costs (wear and tear costs) but Germany for instance makes use of an ex-emption and charges full costs for passenger trains (ie including infrastructure maintenance costs) The German track access charges are as a consequence five times as high as the mere direct costs would be (CERRE 2018) This results in very high access charges for train operators accounting for around a third of total operation costs The average costs per kilometre for long-distance trains rose by 18 between 2013 and 2018 For freight rail Germany has already decided to halve its track access charges The same approach to passenger rail could be a first step in incentivising more international services and to make rail more competitive with other transport modes The lost income for infra-structure managers would need to come from Germanyrsquos general budget

2 Establish a competent national authority for long-distance rail

Germany is the only Eu member state without a national contracting authority for rail transport When Germany reformed its rail system in the 1990s it es-tablished in each of the federal states (Bundeslaumlnder) at least one contract-ing authority responsible for organising and ordering regional rail passenger services and for determining public service obligations There are now 27 re-gional contracting authorities but no such authority at federal level Article 87e(4) of the German constitution obliges the federal government to guarantee non-regional services and provides the legal basis for establishing a national contracting authority by law Yet after more than two decades Germany has still not introduced such a law meaning that all long-distancetrains need to run solely on a commercial basis

This has led to gaps in the national network of long-distance trains and raises the question of how Germany can implement its so-called lsquoDeutschlandtaktrsquo

23ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

an integrated timetable for 2030 which includes routes not commercially via-ble It also makes it more difficult to run international trains through Germany Operating international trains is usually more costly because of higher coor-dination and administration costs and the need to buy or lease interoperable rolling stock In contrast to many other Eu member states Germany provides no support for long-distance trains in the form of public service obligations (PSOs) and also seems to object toother governments covering the German part of the route with PSOs as a recent feasibility study on a StockholmmdashBrus-sels night train revealed

3 Electrify border crossings to Poland and Czech Republic

Most international long-distance trains today run on electricity which is not only cleaner but also faster Only 61 of Germanyrsquos railway network is elec-trified and only 27 of its 57 border crossings into neighbouring countries are electrified Most non-electrified border crossings are on the eastern borders 13 into the Czech Republic and eight into Poland The lack of electrification usually means that locomotives need to be changed at the border adding to travel times and that many faster trains cannot run on those sections To better connect with the east Germany should urgently electrify the following sections

Q CottbusmdashForstmdashLegnica 138 km electrification would speed up services from Berlin to Wroclaw and krakow

Q DresdenmdashGoumlrlitzmdashZgorzelec 95 km electrification would improve train connections between Dresden and Wrocław

Q RegensburgmdashFurth im Wald 131 km electrification would speed up ser-vices from Munich to Prague to less than four hours

Q NuumlrnbergmdashSchirndingmdashCheb 140 km electrification would reduce travel time between Nuremberg and Prague to less than four hours

copy Natalya Vilman dreamstimecom

24 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can France do to boost European rail services

1 Initiate a national strategy for a modal shift from air to rail

Massive modal shift is no longer an option but a necessity if France is to reach its targets of CO2 emissions Yet there is no long-term plan to reduce the number of flights taken for European travel Such a strategy is much needed as it would allow for long-term planning better coordination with the ERA and better coordination between long-distance and local trains

With an extensive network of railways lines already in place international con-nections do not require any major infrastructure works and couldbe created very quickly What is lacking is an integrated strategy to promote train over air for domestic and European travel France should set clear objectives in modal shift by 2030 and 2050 in accordance with national low carbon strategy (SNBC)

As long- and medium-distance train connections (both day and night ) can be an important asset to reach French climate targets France should create further incentives to boost this modal shift introducing VAT on European flights and reducing VAT on train travel Airport expansion projects in France should also be halted as they undermine efforts towards low emission mobility

2 Ease emergence of new players for long-distance connections

As the European rail market opens private and lsquohistoricrsquo incumbents will have the opportunity to operate new European connections This opening of the Eu-ropean train market will be an opportunity for new train companies to operate these trans-European connections To encourage lsquonewcomersrsquo France should guarantee that the services of these private companies will be able to set up their businesses and operate without obstacles set track access charges to its direct costs level and guarantee that newcomers will have access to public infrastructure and tracks

25ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

The opening of the market could also be an opportunity for incumbents such as SNCF As has been done with Thalys or Eurostar SNCF should initiate a part-nership with other national andor private companies to operate one or several of the European corridors that will be designed

It is quite possible to lsquostart smallrsquo operating only on the sections where infra-structure and rolling stock are compatible (ParismdashBerlin for example) and gradually extend the lines to reach full potential such as ParismdashWarsaw

3 Invest in night train rolling stock

Night trains can be a positive alternative to intra-Eu-ropean flights They can serve both domestic and international destinations However night trains in France have been on a downslide for several years The French government has recently announced that two new national train lines will be reopened This trend should be continued as the number of night trains gradually increases and night train lines extended to international destinations

For the night train renaissance France should in-vest euro150 million each year in rolling stock as the current stock is aging and far too limited This in-vestment will incentivise industries to produce new high-quality wagons designed for the night trains

At night some of the French track capacity is re-served for maintenance work and cannot be usedThis challenge can be overcome by starting with a small number of routes providing alternative routes when needed andor subsidising SNCF Reacute-seau so that maintenance work during the night can be lsquoun-optimisedrsquo that is take place over a longer period but without stopping traffic at night copy

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26 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Spain do to boost European rail services

1 Refurbish upgrade and finalise cross-border connections between Spain Portugal and France

Cross-border connections between Spain and its neighbouring countries need an urgent upgrade to allow smooth fast and convenient passenger trips be-tween major southern European cities In the Basque country the rail lines between Hendaye and Irun should be quickly refurbished to avoid unneces-sary stop-overs and guarantee the integration of French high-speed network (ParismdashBordeauxmdashHendaye) with the Spanish high-speed line in construction between DonostiaBilbao and Vittoria (known as Basque Y) and then towards Madrid and other Spanish cities

In Central Pyrenees the historical line between Pau (Nouvelle Aquitaine) and Zaragoza (Aragon) via the monumental Canfranc International station should be relaunched by building the missing 30 km between Bedous (France) and Canfranc (Spain) This final work will increase freight and passenger connectiv-ity improve cross-border security and boost the economy of isolated regions highly dependent on tourism agriculture and industry

On the Atlantic side the cities of Lisbon and Madrid as well as Santiago de Com-postela (Galicia) and Porto need to be integrated into a high-performance network based on the upgrade of outdated rail tracks This connection would ensure the better cohesion and connection of geographically remote and pe-ripheral cities and regions with the rest of the European capitals

2 Relaunch night train services and long-distance conventional lines

Most of the night time and conventional trains between major southern Euro-pean cities (such as MadridmdashParis BarcelonamdashParis MadridmdashBarcelona Ma-dridmdashLisbon) have been abandoned in the last decade due to aggressive and unfair competition from low-cost airlines and long-distance buses However the climate crisis is pushing citizens towards low-carbon transport such as rail

27ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

Spanish citizens deserve affordable night trains and renovated long-distance trains that allow them to save time carbon and money avoiding expensive night hotels at origin and destination Relaunching cross-regional train lines is also a way to support safe inclusive and sustainable tourism in Mediterranean countries dramatically affected by the Covid crisis and related lockdowns

3 Increase the use of the network by opening the market and levelling the playing field

Spain has the longest high-speed network in Europe (2675 km) but it is the least used with only 13 billion passenger-kilometres in 2018 As a comparison France transported 49 billion passenger-km on a high-speed network of almost equal length (2548 km) When looking at passenger and freight rail together use intensity of the Spanish rail network (34 trains per day per route km) is also very low compared to the rest of Europe (146 in the Netherlands 96 in the UK 78 in Germany 43 in France)

As a large part of the high-speed infrastructure has been financed by the Eu the poor performance of rail in Spain is clearly an inefficient use of public money that should be solved by appropriate regulation and incentives The new law for sustainable mobility in the making is a unique opportunity to reverse those negative trends and fix historical pitfalls The opening of the network to new rail operators planned in 2021 should also contribute to increasing the number of passengers without building any new infrastructure Finally the rules for transport operators should be fair between air road and trains by integrating the environmental and social externalities and incentivising cleaner alternatives

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28

References

BMVI (2020) Trans-Europe Express 20 httpswwwbmvideSharedDocsENDocumentsKinnovative-rail-transport-overnight-21-09-2020pdf__blob=publicationFile (accessed 26 November 2020)

CERRE (2018) Track Access ChargesmdashCase Study Germany httpscerreorgsitescerrefiles180509_CERRE_TrackAccessCharges_CaseStudy_Germa-ny_Finalpdf (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2018) Comprehensive analysis of the existing cross-bor-der rail transport connections and missing links on the internal EU borders httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-detail-publicatione68ec381-62f7-11e8-ab9c-01aa75ed71a1language-en (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2019) Remaining Challenges for EU-wide integrated ticketing and payment services httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-de-tail-publicationaf05b3eb-df43-11e9-9c4e-01aa75ed71a1 (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Court of Auditors (2018) A European high-speed rail network not a reality but an ineffective patchwork ECA Special Report httpswwwecaeuropaeuenPagesDocItemaspxdid=46398 (accessed 26 Novem-ber 2020)

Eurostat (2020) Air passenger transport between the main airports (data sets avia_par_fr avia_par_pl avia_par_de avia_par_es avia_par_b) httpseceuropaeueurostatwebmainhome (accessed 26 November 2020)

Independent Regulatorrsquos Group (IRG) (2020) 8th IRG-Rail Market Monitoring Report httpsirg-raileuirgdocumentsmarket-monitoring (accessed 26 November 2020)

International Railway Journal (2020) Spain urged to rebalance high-speed and suburban rail development 7 August 2020 httpswwwrailjournalcompassengerhigh-speedspain-urged-to-rebalance-high-speed-and-subur-ban-rail-investment (accessed 26 November 2020)

Page 16: Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe...Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe How the 2021 European Year of Rail can˜support the˜European Green Deal and a

16 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

member statesrsquo operational programmes for cohesion fundingrecovery funding the European Commission should suggest to member states that they include rail projects that are key tothe functioning of a European rail network

Q Promotes infrastructure interventions which are accompanied by transformative measures When accessing EU rail infrastructure funding member states should be required to present accompanying policy measures which ensure that the infrastructure is used efficiently

Other policy interventions for supporting European rail

Apart from the above mentioned priorities the EU and member states should address the following obstacles

Q International rail has no strong voice in the current system because member states and incumbent railway operators tend to focus on their own national markets There is also a lack of coordination of infrastructure managers across borders The EU should strengthen the European Rail Agency (ERA) as a traffic control and coordination authority for international rail transport The ERA should be entrusted with forecasting demand assessing the level of required services (destination frequency speed) and allocating capacities The ERA could identify routes that may be of interest to travellers but which are not yet fully exploited and could make this information available to train operators It could also determine which sections of the desired network services would be

Examples of bordercrossings between Spain France Belgium Germany and Poland that need urgent attention

Member States involved Border crossing Important for Required action

Germany mdash Poland Cottbus mdash Forst mdash  Legnica

connecting Berlin with southern Poland electrification of 138 km

France mdash Germany Colmar mdash Freiburg connecting regions build 1 km bridge

Spain mdash France Astigarraga mdash IrunthinspHendaye mdash Bayonne

connecting Bordeaux to northern Spain

upgrade cross-border section

Spain mdash France (Pau) Bedous mdash Canfranc (Zaragoza)

Reconnect central corridor in the Pyrenees

Refurbishment of 30 km railtrack on French side

17SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

commercially viable and where public service obligations (PSOs) would be needed in order to guarantee a service

Q Night train operators and new rail operators have an especially hard time finding trains that can operate in more than one country The second-hand market for interoperable rolling stock and night trains is limited ordering an entire new fleet is prohibitively expensive and no func-tioning leasing market is in place for this specific segment The Eu and member states should help to find new creative finance mechanisms for overcoming the lack of rolling stock and consider establishing a publicly managed rolling stock pool

Q Airlines pay no tax on kerosene receive 85 of allowances of the European Emissions Trading Scheme free of charge and pay no VAT on international tickets This creates an uneven playing field between aviation and rail The European Commission has announced it will review both the EU Energy Taxation Directive and the EU ETS Directive in 2021 It is crucial to use this opportunity to introduce a kerosene tax in-troduce full auctioning for aviation allowances in the EU ETS and create a stronger price for emission allowances

Q Track access charges are prohibitively high in some EU member states EU Regulation suggests that charges should cover only marginal costs but some member states ask for much higher mark ups for example on highly frequented routes or during rush hours This creates an unfair advantage for road transport which pays only infrastructure charges on approximately 3 of the Eu road network For freight rail some member states have reduced charges but not so for passenger rail EU member states should agree to reduce track access charges to direct cost levels This would increase the use of tracks and could bring higher in-come for infrastructure managers in return During the transition period alternative funding to cover losses of infrastructure managers could come from ETS auctioning revenues

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18 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

Why is this important

Rail can help the EU to achieve its climate targets

Rail is the cleanest mode of transport A flight from Paris to Berlin causes at least six times the CO2 emissions of a train journey Counting the also non-CO2 impacts of aviation the flight is responsible for 18 times the climate impact of a rail trip With further electrification and decarbonisation of power generation the carbon emissions of rail could be reduced to close to zero

Intra-European flights on distances less than 1000 km are estimated to cause 28 MtCO2 every year without counting the non-CO2 impacts Seventeen of the 20 most frequented air routes in Europe are for distances less than 700 km In theory almost all of these journeys could be shifted to rail

The better European cities are connected by rail the easier it is to move trans-port away from high-polluting transport modes such as aviation and cars The more attractive and easy-to-use rail services are the more likely it is that people will want to switch

Rail can be a driver for European recovery post-Covid-19

The rail sector employs more than 23 million people (directly and indirectly) and creates a gross value added of euro143 billion of which euro66 billion is created directly by the sector This is larger than the gross value added of air transport The Eu rail supply industry accounts for around 20 of the global market

Rail infrastructure investments usually need more time but add to mid-term stability and growth expectations in the construction sector Some rail in-frastructure modernisation projects could be realised rapidlymdashfor example track switches bypasses European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) The investments needed for the realisation of the Trans-European Transport (TEN-T) core network for example is estimated to create euro45 trillion cumulated GDP and 13 million job-years EU-wide

19SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

Rail connects people cities and countries

In contrast to aviation rail not only services highly frequented core routes but also has a network that reaches into remote regions This network was much more dense 50 years ago both within countries and in border regions While many connections are not in use anymore because of massive divestment from rail many could easily be reinstalled A network of fast long-distance connections combined with dense regional services could make Europeans feel connected to and part of the EU

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20

Annex Specific recommendations for Poland Germany France and Spain

What can Poland do to boost European rail services

1 Create fair conditions for infrastructure access

The current system of infrastructure access charges is extremely asymmetric and strongly favours road over rail transport Rail currently pays infrastructure access charges on 100 of the railway network (including layovers or the use of railway stations) while road (bus) operators pay charges only on 1 of Pol-ish roads and individual drivers pay only for selected sections of motorways representing around 02 of the entire network Infrastructure charges of road and rail should be aligned in all market segmentsmdashincluding international long-distance transport

The second problem is the high level of track access charges for rail operators As a first step track access charges in Poland should be reduced to the level of costs directly induced by the train journey This would reduce charges from the current 60 of total infrastructure maintenance costs to 30 These charges should go entirely to the Railway Fund and thus contribute to the development and construction of new railway lines (as is the case with roads) Maintenance costs should be covered through the general state budget ultimately the sys-tem of charges for transport infrastructure should be dependent on the level of external costs (pollution noise traffic safety etc)

4

21

2 Invest in interoperable rolling stock for international connections including night trains

The lack of interoperable rolling stock is a key obstacle for the launch of new international long-distance connections Due to the very limited number of in-ternational connections and small passenger flows it is not a priority for carrier investment As a result international rail operatorsmdashespecially night trainsmdashhave access only to old wagons of poor quality In addition international trains waste time at borders due to the lack of multi-system locomotives which could run on different voltage and safety systems In Poland an estimated 40 locomo-tives and approximately 350 wagons are needed to operate connections with other Eu countries (Germany Czech Republic Slovakia and Lithuania) To im-prove the quality and frequency of international connections Poland should launch an investment programme for interoperable rolling stock This could also help the country negotiate with the European union on the co-financing of rolling stock or even an Eu-financed rolling stock pool Currently the long-dis-tance segment is the only area of passenger railway in Poland not covered by any EU support programme for rolling stock

3 Elimination of barriers to entry for new railway carriers

One of the basic problems of the international transport offer is its malad-justment to modern market needs Trains run infrequently tickets are much more expensive than domestic services and there are no discounts available on international trains The reason is that the organisation of connections is left to the incumbent railway carriers from individual countries and inflexi-ble procedures for their cooperation (including archaic regulations on tariffs and ticket sales) The example of low-cost airlines shows that an effective instrument for changing this situation is opening the market to competition In the case of commercial services full deregulation of the market should be achieved Where financial support (PSO) is required to maintain traffic compet-itive tenders for carrier selection should be obligatory in accordance with the provisions of the Fourth Railway Package In the case of Poland it is essential to review and clarify the rules for market access The current regulation leaves room for misinterpretation and is commonly used to block the entry of new entrants to the market which may exert positive pressure on the quality scope and accessibility of services for passengers

22 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Germany do to boost European rail services

1 Reduce track access charges for passenger trains

According to Eu law track access charges should generally only reflect direct costs (wear and tear costs) but Germany for instance makes use of an ex-emption and charges full costs for passenger trains (ie including infrastructure maintenance costs) The German track access charges are as a consequence five times as high as the mere direct costs would be (CERRE 2018) This results in very high access charges for train operators accounting for around a third of total operation costs The average costs per kilometre for long-distance trains rose by 18 between 2013 and 2018 For freight rail Germany has already decided to halve its track access charges The same approach to passenger rail could be a first step in incentivising more international services and to make rail more competitive with other transport modes The lost income for infra-structure managers would need to come from Germanyrsquos general budget

2 Establish a competent national authority for long-distance rail

Germany is the only Eu member state without a national contracting authority for rail transport When Germany reformed its rail system in the 1990s it es-tablished in each of the federal states (Bundeslaumlnder) at least one contract-ing authority responsible for organising and ordering regional rail passenger services and for determining public service obligations There are now 27 re-gional contracting authorities but no such authority at federal level Article 87e(4) of the German constitution obliges the federal government to guarantee non-regional services and provides the legal basis for establishing a national contracting authority by law Yet after more than two decades Germany has still not introduced such a law meaning that all long-distancetrains need to run solely on a commercial basis

This has led to gaps in the national network of long-distance trains and raises the question of how Germany can implement its so-called lsquoDeutschlandtaktrsquo

23ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

an integrated timetable for 2030 which includes routes not commercially via-ble It also makes it more difficult to run international trains through Germany Operating international trains is usually more costly because of higher coor-dination and administration costs and the need to buy or lease interoperable rolling stock In contrast to many other Eu member states Germany provides no support for long-distance trains in the form of public service obligations (PSOs) and also seems to object toother governments covering the German part of the route with PSOs as a recent feasibility study on a StockholmmdashBrus-sels night train revealed

3 Electrify border crossings to Poland and Czech Republic

Most international long-distance trains today run on electricity which is not only cleaner but also faster Only 61 of Germanyrsquos railway network is elec-trified and only 27 of its 57 border crossings into neighbouring countries are electrified Most non-electrified border crossings are on the eastern borders 13 into the Czech Republic and eight into Poland The lack of electrification usually means that locomotives need to be changed at the border adding to travel times and that many faster trains cannot run on those sections To better connect with the east Germany should urgently electrify the following sections

Q CottbusmdashForstmdashLegnica 138 km electrification would speed up services from Berlin to Wroclaw and krakow

Q DresdenmdashGoumlrlitzmdashZgorzelec 95 km electrification would improve train connections between Dresden and Wrocław

Q RegensburgmdashFurth im Wald 131 km electrification would speed up ser-vices from Munich to Prague to less than four hours

Q NuumlrnbergmdashSchirndingmdashCheb 140 km electrification would reduce travel time between Nuremberg and Prague to less than four hours

copy Natalya Vilman dreamstimecom

24 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can France do to boost European rail services

1 Initiate a national strategy for a modal shift from air to rail

Massive modal shift is no longer an option but a necessity if France is to reach its targets of CO2 emissions Yet there is no long-term plan to reduce the number of flights taken for European travel Such a strategy is much needed as it would allow for long-term planning better coordination with the ERA and better coordination between long-distance and local trains

With an extensive network of railways lines already in place international con-nections do not require any major infrastructure works and couldbe created very quickly What is lacking is an integrated strategy to promote train over air for domestic and European travel France should set clear objectives in modal shift by 2030 and 2050 in accordance with national low carbon strategy (SNBC)

As long- and medium-distance train connections (both day and night ) can be an important asset to reach French climate targets France should create further incentives to boost this modal shift introducing VAT on European flights and reducing VAT on train travel Airport expansion projects in France should also be halted as they undermine efforts towards low emission mobility

2 Ease emergence of new players for long-distance connections

As the European rail market opens private and lsquohistoricrsquo incumbents will have the opportunity to operate new European connections This opening of the Eu-ropean train market will be an opportunity for new train companies to operate these trans-European connections To encourage lsquonewcomersrsquo France should guarantee that the services of these private companies will be able to set up their businesses and operate without obstacles set track access charges to its direct costs level and guarantee that newcomers will have access to public infrastructure and tracks

25ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

The opening of the market could also be an opportunity for incumbents such as SNCF As has been done with Thalys or Eurostar SNCF should initiate a part-nership with other national andor private companies to operate one or several of the European corridors that will be designed

It is quite possible to lsquostart smallrsquo operating only on the sections where infra-structure and rolling stock are compatible (ParismdashBerlin for example) and gradually extend the lines to reach full potential such as ParismdashWarsaw

3 Invest in night train rolling stock

Night trains can be a positive alternative to intra-Eu-ropean flights They can serve both domestic and international destinations However night trains in France have been on a downslide for several years The French government has recently announced that two new national train lines will be reopened This trend should be continued as the number of night trains gradually increases and night train lines extended to international destinations

For the night train renaissance France should in-vest euro150 million each year in rolling stock as the current stock is aging and far too limited This in-vestment will incentivise industries to produce new high-quality wagons designed for the night trains

At night some of the French track capacity is re-served for maintenance work and cannot be usedThis challenge can be overcome by starting with a small number of routes providing alternative routes when needed andor subsidising SNCF Reacute-seau so that maintenance work during the night can be lsquoun-optimisedrsquo that is take place over a longer period but without stopping traffic at night copy

Car

abin

er d

ream

stim

eco

m

26 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Spain do to boost European rail services

1 Refurbish upgrade and finalise cross-border connections between Spain Portugal and France

Cross-border connections between Spain and its neighbouring countries need an urgent upgrade to allow smooth fast and convenient passenger trips be-tween major southern European cities In the Basque country the rail lines between Hendaye and Irun should be quickly refurbished to avoid unneces-sary stop-overs and guarantee the integration of French high-speed network (ParismdashBordeauxmdashHendaye) with the Spanish high-speed line in construction between DonostiaBilbao and Vittoria (known as Basque Y) and then towards Madrid and other Spanish cities

In Central Pyrenees the historical line between Pau (Nouvelle Aquitaine) and Zaragoza (Aragon) via the monumental Canfranc International station should be relaunched by building the missing 30 km between Bedous (France) and Canfranc (Spain) This final work will increase freight and passenger connectiv-ity improve cross-border security and boost the economy of isolated regions highly dependent on tourism agriculture and industry

On the Atlantic side the cities of Lisbon and Madrid as well as Santiago de Com-postela (Galicia) and Porto need to be integrated into a high-performance network based on the upgrade of outdated rail tracks This connection would ensure the better cohesion and connection of geographically remote and pe-ripheral cities and regions with the rest of the European capitals

2 Relaunch night train services and long-distance conventional lines

Most of the night time and conventional trains between major southern Euro-pean cities (such as MadridmdashParis BarcelonamdashParis MadridmdashBarcelona Ma-dridmdashLisbon) have been abandoned in the last decade due to aggressive and unfair competition from low-cost airlines and long-distance buses However the climate crisis is pushing citizens towards low-carbon transport such as rail

27ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

Spanish citizens deserve affordable night trains and renovated long-distance trains that allow them to save time carbon and money avoiding expensive night hotels at origin and destination Relaunching cross-regional train lines is also a way to support safe inclusive and sustainable tourism in Mediterranean countries dramatically affected by the Covid crisis and related lockdowns

3 Increase the use of the network by opening the market and levelling the playing field

Spain has the longest high-speed network in Europe (2675 km) but it is the least used with only 13 billion passenger-kilometres in 2018 As a comparison France transported 49 billion passenger-km on a high-speed network of almost equal length (2548 km) When looking at passenger and freight rail together use intensity of the Spanish rail network (34 trains per day per route km) is also very low compared to the rest of Europe (146 in the Netherlands 96 in the UK 78 in Germany 43 in France)

As a large part of the high-speed infrastructure has been financed by the Eu the poor performance of rail in Spain is clearly an inefficient use of public money that should be solved by appropriate regulation and incentives The new law for sustainable mobility in the making is a unique opportunity to reverse those negative trends and fix historical pitfalls The opening of the network to new rail operators planned in 2021 should also contribute to increasing the number of passengers without building any new infrastructure Finally the rules for transport operators should be fair between air road and trains by integrating the environmental and social externalities and incentivising cleaner alternatives

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28

References

BMVI (2020) Trans-Europe Express 20 httpswwwbmvideSharedDocsENDocumentsKinnovative-rail-transport-overnight-21-09-2020pdf__blob=publicationFile (accessed 26 November 2020)

CERRE (2018) Track Access ChargesmdashCase Study Germany httpscerreorgsitescerrefiles180509_CERRE_TrackAccessCharges_CaseStudy_Germa-ny_Finalpdf (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2018) Comprehensive analysis of the existing cross-bor-der rail transport connections and missing links on the internal EU borders httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-detail-publicatione68ec381-62f7-11e8-ab9c-01aa75ed71a1language-en (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2019) Remaining Challenges for EU-wide integrated ticketing and payment services httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-de-tail-publicationaf05b3eb-df43-11e9-9c4e-01aa75ed71a1 (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Court of Auditors (2018) A European high-speed rail network not a reality but an ineffective patchwork ECA Special Report httpswwwecaeuropaeuenPagesDocItemaspxdid=46398 (accessed 26 Novem-ber 2020)

Eurostat (2020) Air passenger transport between the main airports (data sets avia_par_fr avia_par_pl avia_par_de avia_par_es avia_par_b) httpseceuropaeueurostatwebmainhome (accessed 26 November 2020)

Independent Regulatorrsquos Group (IRG) (2020) 8th IRG-Rail Market Monitoring Report httpsirg-raileuirgdocumentsmarket-monitoring (accessed 26 November 2020)

International Railway Journal (2020) Spain urged to rebalance high-speed and suburban rail development 7 August 2020 httpswwwrailjournalcompassengerhigh-speedspain-urged-to-rebalance-high-speed-and-subur-ban-rail-investment (accessed 26 November 2020)

Page 17: Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe...Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe How the 2021 European Year of Rail can˜support the˜European Green Deal and a

17SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

commercially viable and where public service obligations (PSOs) would be needed in order to guarantee a service

Q Night train operators and new rail operators have an especially hard time finding trains that can operate in more than one country The second-hand market for interoperable rolling stock and night trains is limited ordering an entire new fleet is prohibitively expensive and no func-tioning leasing market is in place for this specific segment The Eu and member states should help to find new creative finance mechanisms for overcoming the lack of rolling stock and consider establishing a publicly managed rolling stock pool

Q Airlines pay no tax on kerosene receive 85 of allowances of the European Emissions Trading Scheme free of charge and pay no VAT on international tickets This creates an uneven playing field between aviation and rail The European Commission has announced it will review both the EU Energy Taxation Directive and the EU ETS Directive in 2021 It is crucial to use this opportunity to introduce a kerosene tax in-troduce full auctioning for aviation allowances in the EU ETS and create a stronger price for emission allowances

Q Track access charges are prohibitively high in some EU member states EU Regulation suggests that charges should cover only marginal costs but some member states ask for much higher mark ups for example on highly frequented routes or during rush hours This creates an unfair advantage for road transport which pays only infrastructure charges on approximately 3 of the Eu road network For freight rail some member states have reduced charges but not so for passenger rail EU member states should agree to reduce track access charges to direct cost levels This would increase the use of tracks and could bring higher in-come for infrastructure managers in return During the transition period alternative funding to cover losses of infrastructure managers could come from ETS auctioning revenues

copy E

rnes

t Aka

yeu

dre

amst

ime

com

18 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

Why is this important

Rail can help the EU to achieve its climate targets

Rail is the cleanest mode of transport A flight from Paris to Berlin causes at least six times the CO2 emissions of a train journey Counting the also non-CO2 impacts of aviation the flight is responsible for 18 times the climate impact of a rail trip With further electrification and decarbonisation of power generation the carbon emissions of rail could be reduced to close to zero

Intra-European flights on distances less than 1000 km are estimated to cause 28 MtCO2 every year without counting the non-CO2 impacts Seventeen of the 20 most frequented air routes in Europe are for distances less than 700 km In theory almost all of these journeys could be shifted to rail

The better European cities are connected by rail the easier it is to move trans-port away from high-polluting transport modes such as aviation and cars The more attractive and easy-to-use rail services are the more likely it is that people will want to switch

Rail can be a driver for European recovery post-Covid-19

The rail sector employs more than 23 million people (directly and indirectly) and creates a gross value added of euro143 billion of which euro66 billion is created directly by the sector This is larger than the gross value added of air transport The Eu rail supply industry accounts for around 20 of the global market

Rail infrastructure investments usually need more time but add to mid-term stability and growth expectations in the construction sector Some rail in-frastructure modernisation projects could be realised rapidlymdashfor example track switches bypasses European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) The investments needed for the realisation of the Trans-European Transport (TEN-T) core network for example is estimated to create euro45 trillion cumulated GDP and 13 million job-years EU-wide

19SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

Rail connects people cities and countries

In contrast to aviation rail not only services highly frequented core routes but also has a network that reaches into remote regions This network was much more dense 50 years ago both within countries and in border regions While many connections are not in use anymore because of massive divestment from rail many could easily be reinstalled A network of fast long-distance connections combined with dense regional services could make Europeans feel connected to and part of the EU

copy F

ilipp

o Ca

rlot

dre

amst

ime

com

20

Annex Specific recommendations for Poland Germany France and Spain

What can Poland do to boost European rail services

1 Create fair conditions for infrastructure access

The current system of infrastructure access charges is extremely asymmetric and strongly favours road over rail transport Rail currently pays infrastructure access charges on 100 of the railway network (including layovers or the use of railway stations) while road (bus) operators pay charges only on 1 of Pol-ish roads and individual drivers pay only for selected sections of motorways representing around 02 of the entire network Infrastructure charges of road and rail should be aligned in all market segmentsmdashincluding international long-distance transport

The second problem is the high level of track access charges for rail operators As a first step track access charges in Poland should be reduced to the level of costs directly induced by the train journey This would reduce charges from the current 60 of total infrastructure maintenance costs to 30 These charges should go entirely to the Railway Fund and thus contribute to the development and construction of new railway lines (as is the case with roads) Maintenance costs should be covered through the general state budget ultimately the sys-tem of charges for transport infrastructure should be dependent on the level of external costs (pollution noise traffic safety etc)

4

21

2 Invest in interoperable rolling stock for international connections including night trains

The lack of interoperable rolling stock is a key obstacle for the launch of new international long-distance connections Due to the very limited number of in-ternational connections and small passenger flows it is not a priority for carrier investment As a result international rail operatorsmdashespecially night trainsmdashhave access only to old wagons of poor quality In addition international trains waste time at borders due to the lack of multi-system locomotives which could run on different voltage and safety systems In Poland an estimated 40 locomo-tives and approximately 350 wagons are needed to operate connections with other Eu countries (Germany Czech Republic Slovakia and Lithuania) To im-prove the quality and frequency of international connections Poland should launch an investment programme for interoperable rolling stock This could also help the country negotiate with the European union on the co-financing of rolling stock or even an Eu-financed rolling stock pool Currently the long-dis-tance segment is the only area of passenger railway in Poland not covered by any EU support programme for rolling stock

3 Elimination of barriers to entry for new railway carriers

One of the basic problems of the international transport offer is its malad-justment to modern market needs Trains run infrequently tickets are much more expensive than domestic services and there are no discounts available on international trains The reason is that the organisation of connections is left to the incumbent railway carriers from individual countries and inflexi-ble procedures for their cooperation (including archaic regulations on tariffs and ticket sales) The example of low-cost airlines shows that an effective instrument for changing this situation is opening the market to competition In the case of commercial services full deregulation of the market should be achieved Where financial support (PSO) is required to maintain traffic compet-itive tenders for carrier selection should be obligatory in accordance with the provisions of the Fourth Railway Package In the case of Poland it is essential to review and clarify the rules for market access The current regulation leaves room for misinterpretation and is commonly used to block the entry of new entrants to the market which may exert positive pressure on the quality scope and accessibility of services for passengers

22 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Germany do to boost European rail services

1 Reduce track access charges for passenger trains

According to Eu law track access charges should generally only reflect direct costs (wear and tear costs) but Germany for instance makes use of an ex-emption and charges full costs for passenger trains (ie including infrastructure maintenance costs) The German track access charges are as a consequence five times as high as the mere direct costs would be (CERRE 2018) This results in very high access charges for train operators accounting for around a third of total operation costs The average costs per kilometre for long-distance trains rose by 18 between 2013 and 2018 For freight rail Germany has already decided to halve its track access charges The same approach to passenger rail could be a first step in incentivising more international services and to make rail more competitive with other transport modes The lost income for infra-structure managers would need to come from Germanyrsquos general budget

2 Establish a competent national authority for long-distance rail

Germany is the only Eu member state without a national contracting authority for rail transport When Germany reformed its rail system in the 1990s it es-tablished in each of the federal states (Bundeslaumlnder) at least one contract-ing authority responsible for organising and ordering regional rail passenger services and for determining public service obligations There are now 27 re-gional contracting authorities but no such authority at federal level Article 87e(4) of the German constitution obliges the federal government to guarantee non-regional services and provides the legal basis for establishing a national contracting authority by law Yet after more than two decades Germany has still not introduced such a law meaning that all long-distancetrains need to run solely on a commercial basis

This has led to gaps in the national network of long-distance trains and raises the question of how Germany can implement its so-called lsquoDeutschlandtaktrsquo

23ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

an integrated timetable for 2030 which includes routes not commercially via-ble It also makes it more difficult to run international trains through Germany Operating international trains is usually more costly because of higher coor-dination and administration costs and the need to buy or lease interoperable rolling stock In contrast to many other Eu member states Germany provides no support for long-distance trains in the form of public service obligations (PSOs) and also seems to object toother governments covering the German part of the route with PSOs as a recent feasibility study on a StockholmmdashBrus-sels night train revealed

3 Electrify border crossings to Poland and Czech Republic

Most international long-distance trains today run on electricity which is not only cleaner but also faster Only 61 of Germanyrsquos railway network is elec-trified and only 27 of its 57 border crossings into neighbouring countries are electrified Most non-electrified border crossings are on the eastern borders 13 into the Czech Republic and eight into Poland The lack of electrification usually means that locomotives need to be changed at the border adding to travel times and that many faster trains cannot run on those sections To better connect with the east Germany should urgently electrify the following sections

Q CottbusmdashForstmdashLegnica 138 km electrification would speed up services from Berlin to Wroclaw and krakow

Q DresdenmdashGoumlrlitzmdashZgorzelec 95 km electrification would improve train connections between Dresden and Wrocław

Q RegensburgmdashFurth im Wald 131 km electrification would speed up ser-vices from Munich to Prague to less than four hours

Q NuumlrnbergmdashSchirndingmdashCheb 140 km electrification would reduce travel time between Nuremberg and Prague to less than four hours

copy Natalya Vilman dreamstimecom

24 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can France do to boost European rail services

1 Initiate a national strategy for a modal shift from air to rail

Massive modal shift is no longer an option but a necessity if France is to reach its targets of CO2 emissions Yet there is no long-term plan to reduce the number of flights taken for European travel Such a strategy is much needed as it would allow for long-term planning better coordination with the ERA and better coordination between long-distance and local trains

With an extensive network of railways lines already in place international con-nections do not require any major infrastructure works and couldbe created very quickly What is lacking is an integrated strategy to promote train over air for domestic and European travel France should set clear objectives in modal shift by 2030 and 2050 in accordance with national low carbon strategy (SNBC)

As long- and medium-distance train connections (both day and night ) can be an important asset to reach French climate targets France should create further incentives to boost this modal shift introducing VAT on European flights and reducing VAT on train travel Airport expansion projects in France should also be halted as they undermine efforts towards low emission mobility

2 Ease emergence of new players for long-distance connections

As the European rail market opens private and lsquohistoricrsquo incumbents will have the opportunity to operate new European connections This opening of the Eu-ropean train market will be an opportunity for new train companies to operate these trans-European connections To encourage lsquonewcomersrsquo France should guarantee that the services of these private companies will be able to set up their businesses and operate without obstacles set track access charges to its direct costs level and guarantee that newcomers will have access to public infrastructure and tracks

25ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

The opening of the market could also be an opportunity for incumbents such as SNCF As has been done with Thalys or Eurostar SNCF should initiate a part-nership with other national andor private companies to operate one or several of the European corridors that will be designed

It is quite possible to lsquostart smallrsquo operating only on the sections where infra-structure and rolling stock are compatible (ParismdashBerlin for example) and gradually extend the lines to reach full potential such as ParismdashWarsaw

3 Invest in night train rolling stock

Night trains can be a positive alternative to intra-Eu-ropean flights They can serve both domestic and international destinations However night trains in France have been on a downslide for several years The French government has recently announced that two new national train lines will be reopened This trend should be continued as the number of night trains gradually increases and night train lines extended to international destinations

For the night train renaissance France should in-vest euro150 million each year in rolling stock as the current stock is aging and far too limited This in-vestment will incentivise industries to produce new high-quality wagons designed for the night trains

At night some of the French track capacity is re-served for maintenance work and cannot be usedThis challenge can be overcome by starting with a small number of routes providing alternative routes when needed andor subsidising SNCF Reacute-seau so that maintenance work during the night can be lsquoun-optimisedrsquo that is take place over a longer period but without stopping traffic at night copy

Car

abin

er d

ream

stim

eco

m

26 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Spain do to boost European rail services

1 Refurbish upgrade and finalise cross-border connections between Spain Portugal and France

Cross-border connections between Spain and its neighbouring countries need an urgent upgrade to allow smooth fast and convenient passenger trips be-tween major southern European cities In the Basque country the rail lines between Hendaye and Irun should be quickly refurbished to avoid unneces-sary stop-overs and guarantee the integration of French high-speed network (ParismdashBordeauxmdashHendaye) with the Spanish high-speed line in construction between DonostiaBilbao and Vittoria (known as Basque Y) and then towards Madrid and other Spanish cities

In Central Pyrenees the historical line between Pau (Nouvelle Aquitaine) and Zaragoza (Aragon) via the monumental Canfranc International station should be relaunched by building the missing 30 km between Bedous (France) and Canfranc (Spain) This final work will increase freight and passenger connectiv-ity improve cross-border security and boost the economy of isolated regions highly dependent on tourism agriculture and industry

On the Atlantic side the cities of Lisbon and Madrid as well as Santiago de Com-postela (Galicia) and Porto need to be integrated into a high-performance network based on the upgrade of outdated rail tracks This connection would ensure the better cohesion and connection of geographically remote and pe-ripheral cities and regions with the rest of the European capitals

2 Relaunch night train services and long-distance conventional lines

Most of the night time and conventional trains between major southern Euro-pean cities (such as MadridmdashParis BarcelonamdashParis MadridmdashBarcelona Ma-dridmdashLisbon) have been abandoned in the last decade due to aggressive and unfair competition from low-cost airlines and long-distance buses However the climate crisis is pushing citizens towards low-carbon transport such as rail

27ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

Spanish citizens deserve affordable night trains and renovated long-distance trains that allow them to save time carbon and money avoiding expensive night hotels at origin and destination Relaunching cross-regional train lines is also a way to support safe inclusive and sustainable tourism in Mediterranean countries dramatically affected by the Covid crisis and related lockdowns

3 Increase the use of the network by opening the market and levelling the playing field

Spain has the longest high-speed network in Europe (2675 km) but it is the least used with only 13 billion passenger-kilometres in 2018 As a comparison France transported 49 billion passenger-km on a high-speed network of almost equal length (2548 km) When looking at passenger and freight rail together use intensity of the Spanish rail network (34 trains per day per route km) is also very low compared to the rest of Europe (146 in the Netherlands 96 in the UK 78 in Germany 43 in France)

As a large part of the high-speed infrastructure has been financed by the Eu the poor performance of rail in Spain is clearly an inefficient use of public money that should be solved by appropriate regulation and incentives The new law for sustainable mobility in the making is a unique opportunity to reverse those negative trends and fix historical pitfalls The opening of the network to new rail operators planned in 2021 should also contribute to increasing the number of passengers without building any new infrastructure Finally the rules for transport operators should be fair between air road and trains by integrating the environmental and social externalities and incentivising cleaner alternatives

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28

References

BMVI (2020) Trans-Europe Express 20 httpswwwbmvideSharedDocsENDocumentsKinnovative-rail-transport-overnight-21-09-2020pdf__blob=publicationFile (accessed 26 November 2020)

CERRE (2018) Track Access ChargesmdashCase Study Germany httpscerreorgsitescerrefiles180509_CERRE_TrackAccessCharges_CaseStudy_Germa-ny_Finalpdf (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2018) Comprehensive analysis of the existing cross-bor-der rail transport connections and missing links on the internal EU borders httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-detail-publicatione68ec381-62f7-11e8-ab9c-01aa75ed71a1language-en (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2019) Remaining Challenges for EU-wide integrated ticketing and payment services httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-de-tail-publicationaf05b3eb-df43-11e9-9c4e-01aa75ed71a1 (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Court of Auditors (2018) A European high-speed rail network not a reality but an ineffective patchwork ECA Special Report httpswwwecaeuropaeuenPagesDocItemaspxdid=46398 (accessed 26 Novem-ber 2020)

Eurostat (2020) Air passenger transport between the main airports (data sets avia_par_fr avia_par_pl avia_par_de avia_par_es avia_par_b) httpseceuropaeueurostatwebmainhome (accessed 26 November 2020)

Independent Regulatorrsquos Group (IRG) (2020) 8th IRG-Rail Market Monitoring Report httpsirg-raileuirgdocumentsmarket-monitoring (accessed 26 November 2020)

International Railway Journal (2020) Spain urged to rebalance high-speed and suburban rail development 7 August 2020 httpswwwrailjournalcompassengerhigh-speedspain-urged-to-rebalance-high-speed-and-subur-ban-rail-investment (accessed 26 November 2020)

Page 18: Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe...Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe How the 2021 European Year of Rail can˜support the˜European Green Deal and a

18 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

Why is this important

Rail can help the EU to achieve its climate targets

Rail is the cleanest mode of transport A flight from Paris to Berlin causes at least six times the CO2 emissions of a train journey Counting the also non-CO2 impacts of aviation the flight is responsible for 18 times the climate impact of a rail trip With further electrification and decarbonisation of power generation the carbon emissions of rail could be reduced to close to zero

Intra-European flights on distances less than 1000 km are estimated to cause 28 MtCO2 every year without counting the non-CO2 impacts Seventeen of the 20 most frequented air routes in Europe are for distances less than 700 km In theory almost all of these journeys could be shifted to rail

The better European cities are connected by rail the easier it is to move trans-port away from high-polluting transport modes such as aviation and cars The more attractive and easy-to-use rail services are the more likely it is that people will want to switch

Rail can be a driver for European recovery post-Covid-19

The rail sector employs more than 23 million people (directly and indirectly) and creates a gross value added of euro143 billion of which euro66 billion is created directly by the sector This is larger than the gross value added of air transport The Eu rail supply industry accounts for around 20 of the global market

Rail infrastructure investments usually need more time but add to mid-term stability and growth expectations in the construction sector Some rail in-frastructure modernisation projects could be realised rapidlymdashfor example track switches bypasses European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) The investments needed for the realisation of the Trans-European Transport (TEN-T) core network for example is estimated to create euro45 trillion cumulated GDP and 13 million job-years EU-wide

19SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

Rail connects people cities and countries

In contrast to aviation rail not only services highly frequented core routes but also has a network that reaches into remote regions This network was much more dense 50 years ago both within countries and in border regions While many connections are not in use anymore because of massive divestment from rail many could easily be reinstalled A network of fast long-distance connections combined with dense regional services could make Europeans feel connected to and part of the EU

copy F

ilipp

o Ca

rlot

dre

amst

ime

com

20

Annex Specific recommendations for Poland Germany France and Spain

What can Poland do to boost European rail services

1 Create fair conditions for infrastructure access

The current system of infrastructure access charges is extremely asymmetric and strongly favours road over rail transport Rail currently pays infrastructure access charges on 100 of the railway network (including layovers or the use of railway stations) while road (bus) operators pay charges only on 1 of Pol-ish roads and individual drivers pay only for selected sections of motorways representing around 02 of the entire network Infrastructure charges of road and rail should be aligned in all market segmentsmdashincluding international long-distance transport

The second problem is the high level of track access charges for rail operators As a first step track access charges in Poland should be reduced to the level of costs directly induced by the train journey This would reduce charges from the current 60 of total infrastructure maintenance costs to 30 These charges should go entirely to the Railway Fund and thus contribute to the development and construction of new railway lines (as is the case with roads) Maintenance costs should be covered through the general state budget ultimately the sys-tem of charges for transport infrastructure should be dependent on the level of external costs (pollution noise traffic safety etc)

4

21

2 Invest in interoperable rolling stock for international connections including night trains

The lack of interoperable rolling stock is a key obstacle for the launch of new international long-distance connections Due to the very limited number of in-ternational connections and small passenger flows it is not a priority for carrier investment As a result international rail operatorsmdashespecially night trainsmdashhave access only to old wagons of poor quality In addition international trains waste time at borders due to the lack of multi-system locomotives which could run on different voltage and safety systems In Poland an estimated 40 locomo-tives and approximately 350 wagons are needed to operate connections with other Eu countries (Germany Czech Republic Slovakia and Lithuania) To im-prove the quality and frequency of international connections Poland should launch an investment programme for interoperable rolling stock This could also help the country negotiate with the European union on the co-financing of rolling stock or even an Eu-financed rolling stock pool Currently the long-dis-tance segment is the only area of passenger railway in Poland not covered by any EU support programme for rolling stock

3 Elimination of barriers to entry for new railway carriers

One of the basic problems of the international transport offer is its malad-justment to modern market needs Trains run infrequently tickets are much more expensive than domestic services and there are no discounts available on international trains The reason is that the organisation of connections is left to the incumbent railway carriers from individual countries and inflexi-ble procedures for their cooperation (including archaic regulations on tariffs and ticket sales) The example of low-cost airlines shows that an effective instrument for changing this situation is opening the market to competition In the case of commercial services full deregulation of the market should be achieved Where financial support (PSO) is required to maintain traffic compet-itive tenders for carrier selection should be obligatory in accordance with the provisions of the Fourth Railway Package In the case of Poland it is essential to review and clarify the rules for market access The current regulation leaves room for misinterpretation and is commonly used to block the entry of new entrants to the market which may exert positive pressure on the quality scope and accessibility of services for passengers

22 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Germany do to boost European rail services

1 Reduce track access charges for passenger trains

According to Eu law track access charges should generally only reflect direct costs (wear and tear costs) but Germany for instance makes use of an ex-emption and charges full costs for passenger trains (ie including infrastructure maintenance costs) The German track access charges are as a consequence five times as high as the mere direct costs would be (CERRE 2018) This results in very high access charges for train operators accounting for around a third of total operation costs The average costs per kilometre for long-distance trains rose by 18 between 2013 and 2018 For freight rail Germany has already decided to halve its track access charges The same approach to passenger rail could be a first step in incentivising more international services and to make rail more competitive with other transport modes The lost income for infra-structure managers would need to come from Germanyrsquos general budget

2 Establish a competent national authority for long-distance rail

Germany is the only Eu member state without a national contracting authority for rail transport When Germany reformed its rail system in the 1990s it es-tablished in each of the federal states (Bundeslaumlnder) at least one contract-ing authority responsible for organising and ordering regional rail passenger services and for determining public service obligations There are now 27 re-gional contracting authorities but no such authority at federal level Article 87e(4) of the German constitution obliges the federal government to guarantee non-regional services and provides the legal basis for establishing a national contracting authority by law Yet after more than two decades Germany has still not introduced such a law meaning that all long-distancetrains need to run solely on a commercial basis

This has led to gaps in the national network of long-distance trains and raises the question of how Germany can implement its so-called lsquoDeutschlandtaktrsquo

23ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

an integrated timetable for 2030 which includes routes not commercially via-ble It also makes it more difficult to run international trains through Germany Operating international trains is usually more costly because of higher coor-dination and administration costs and the need to buy or lease interoperable rolling stock In contrast to many other Eu member states Germany provides no support for long-distance trains in the form of public service obligations (PSOs) and also seems to object toother governments covering the German part of the route with PSOs as a recent feasibility study on a StockholmmdashBrus-sels night train revealed

3 Electrify border crossings to Poland and Czech Republic

Most international long-distance trains today run on electricity which is not only cleaner but also faster Only 61 of Germanyrsquos railway network is elec-trified and only 27 of its 57 border crossings into neighbouring countries are electrified Most non-electrified border crossings are on the eastern borders 13 into the Czech Republic and eight into Poland The lack of electrification usually means that locomotives need to be changed at the border adding to travel times and that many faster trains cannot run on those sections To better connect with the east Germany should urgently electrify the following sections

Q CottbusmdashForstmdashLegnica 138 km electrification would speed up services from Berlin to Wroclaw and krakow

Q DresdenmdashGoumlrlitzmdashZgorzelec 95 km electrification would improve train connections between Dresden and Wrocław

Q RegensburgmdashFurth im Wald 131 km electrification would speed up ser-vices from Munich to Prague to less than four hours

Q NuumlrnbergmdashSchirndingmdashCheb 140 km electrification would reduce travel time between Nuremberg and Prague to less than four hours

copy Natalya Vilman dreamstimecom

24 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can France do to boost European rail services

1 Initiate a national strategy for a modal shift from air to rail

Massive modal shift is no longer an option but a necessity if France is to reach its targets of CO2 emissions Yet there is no long-term plan to reduce the number of flights taken for European travel Such a strategy is much needed as it would allow for long-term planning better coordination with the ERA and better coordination between long-distance and local trains

With an extensive network of railways lines already in place international con-nections do not require any major infrastructure works and couldbe created very quickly What is lacking is an integrated strategy to promote train over air for domestic and European travel France should set clear objectives in modal shift by 2030 and 2050 in accordance with national low carbon strategy (SNBC)

As long- and medium-distance train connections (both day and night ) can be an important asset to reach French climate targets France should create further incentives to boost this modal shift introducing VAT on European flights and reducing VAT on train travel Airport expansion projects in France should also be halted as they undermine efforts towards low emission mobility

2 Ease emergence of new players for long-distance connections

As the European rail market opens private and lsquohistoricrsquo incumbents will have the opportunity to operate new European connections This opening of the Eu-ropean train market will be an opportunity for new train companies to operate these trans-European connections To encourage lsquonewcomersrsquo France should guarantee that the services of these private companies will be able to set up their businesses and operate without obstacles set track access charges to its direct costs level and guarantee that newcomers will have access to public infrastructure and tracks

25ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

The opening of the market could also be an opportunity for incumbents such as SNCF As has been done with Thalys or Eurostar SNCF should initiate a part-nership with other national andor private companies to operate one or several of the European corridors that will be designed

It is quite possible to lsquostart smallrsquo operating only on the sections where infra-structure and rolling stock are compatible (ParismdashBerlin for example) and gradually extend the lines to reach full potential such as ParismdashWarsaw

3 Invest in night train rolling stock

Night trains can be a positive alternative to intra-Eu-ropean flights They can serve both domestic and international destinations However night trains in France have been on a downslide for several years The French government has recently announced that two new national train lines will be reopened This trend should be continued as the number of night trains gradually increases and night train lines extended to international destinations

For the night train renaissance France should in-vest euro150 million each year in rolling stock as the current stock is aging and far too limited This in-vestment will incentivise industries to produce new high-quality wagons designed for the night trains

At night some of the French track capacity is re-served for maintenance work and cannot be usedThis challenge can be overcome by starting with a small number of routes providing alternative routes when needed andor subsidising SNCF Reacute-seau so that maintenance work during the night can be lsquoun-optimisedrsquo that is take place over a longer period but without stopping traffic at night copy

Car

abin

er d

ream

stim

eco

m

26 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Spain do to boost European rail services

1 Refurbish upgrade and finalise cross-border connections between Spain Portugal and France

Cross-border connections between Spain and its neighbouring countries need an urgent upgrade to allow smooth fast and convenient passenger trips be-tween major southern European cities In the Basque country the rail lines between Hendaye and Irun should be quickly refurbished to avoid unneces-sary stop-overs and guarantee the integration of French high-speed network (ParismdashBordeauxmdashHendaye) with the Spanish high-speed line in construction between DonostiaBilbao and Vittoria (known as Basque Y) and then towards Madrid and other Spanish cities

In Central Pyrenees the historical line between Pau (Nouvelle Aquitaine) and Zaragoza (Aragon) via the monumental Canfranc International station should be relaunched by building the missing 30 km between Bedous (France) and Canfranc (Spain) This final work will increase freight and passenger connectiv-ity improve cross-border security and boost the economy of isolated regions highly dependent on tourism agriculture and industry

On the Atlantic side the cities of Lisbon and Madrid as well as Santiago de Com-postela (Galicia) and Porto need to be integrated into a high-performance network based on the upgrade of outdated rail tracks This connection would ensure the better cohesion and connection of geographically remote and pe-ripheral cities and regions with the rest of the European capitals

2 Relaunch night train services and long-distance conventional lines

Most of the night time and conventional trains between major southern Euro-pean cities (such as MadridmdashParis BarcelonamdashParis MadridmdashBarcelona Ma-dridmdashLisbon) have been abandoned in the last decade due to aggressive and unfair competition from low-cost airlines and long-distance buses However the climate crisis is pushing citizens towards low-carbon transport such as rail

27ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

Spanish citizens deserve affordable night trains and renovated long-distance trains that allow them to save time carbon and money avoiding expensive night hotels at origin and destination Relaunching cross-regional train lines is also a way to support safe inclusive and sustainable tourism in Mediterranean countries dramatically affected by the Covid crisis and related lockdowns

3 Increase the use of the network by opening the market and levelling the playing field

Spain has the longest high-speed network in Europe (2675 km) but it is the least used with only 13 billion passenger-kilometres in 2018 As a comparison France transported 49 billion passenger-km on a high-speed network of almost equal length (2548 km) When looking at passenger and freight rail together use intensity of the Spanish rail network (34 trains per day per route km) is also very low compared to the rest of Europe (146 in the Netherlands 96 in the UK 78 in Germany 43 in France)

As a large part of the high-speed infrastructure has been financed by the Eu the poor performance of rail in Spain is clearly an inefficient use of public money that should be solved by appropriate regulation and incentives The new law for sustainable mobility in the making is a unique opportunity to reverse those negative trends and fix historical pitfalls The opening of the network to new rail operators planned in 2021 should also contribute to increasing the number of passengers without building any new infrastructure Finally the rules for transport operators should be fair between air road and trains by integrating the environmental and social externalities and incentivising cleaner alternatives

copy A

leks

andr

Vor

obev

dre

amst

ime

com

28

References

BMVI (2020) Trans-Europe Express 20 httpswwwbmvideSharedDocsENDocumentsKinnovative-rail-transport-overnight-21-09-2020pdf__blob=publicationFile (accessed 26 November 2020)

CERRE (2018) Track Access ChargesmdashCase Study Germany httpscerreorgsitescerrefiles180509_CERRE_TrackAccessCharges_CaseStudy_Germa-ny_Finalpdf (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2018) Comprehensive analysis of the existing cross-bor-der rail transport connections and missing links on the internal EU borders httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-detail-publicatione68ec381-62f7-11e8-ab9c-01aa75ed71a1language-en (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2019) Remaining Challenges for EU-wide integrated ticketing and payment services httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-de-tail-publicationaf05b3eb-df43-11e9-9c4e-01aa75ed71a1 (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Court of Auditors (2018) A European high-speed rail network not a reality but an ineffective patchwork ECA Special Report httpswwwecaeuropaeuenPagesDocItemaspxdid=46398 (accessed 26 Novem-ber 2020)

Eurostat (2020) Air passenger transport between the main airports (data sets avia_par_fr avia_par_pl avia_par_de avia_par_es avia_par_b) httpseceuropaeueurostatwebmainhome (accessed 26 November 2020)

Independent Regulatorrsquos Group (IRG) (2020) 8th IRG-Rail Market Monitoring Report httpsirg-raileuirgdocumentsmarket-monitoring (accessed 26 November 2020)

International Railway Journal (2020) Spain urged to rebalance high-speed and suburban rail development 7 August 2020 httpswwwrailjournalcompassengerhigh-speedspain-urged-to-rebalance-high-speed-and-subur-ban-rail-investment (accessed 26 November 2020)

Page 19: Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe...Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe How the 2021 European Year of Rail can˜support the˜European Green Deal and a

19SMART SPENDING uSE Eu MONEY

Rail connects people cities and countries

In contrast to aviation rail not only services highly frequented core routes but also has a network that reaches into remote regions This network was much more dense 50 years ago both within countries and in border regions While many connections are not in use anymore because of massive divestment from rail many could easily be reinstalled A network of fast long-distance connections combined with dense regional services could make Europeans feel connected to and part of the EU

copy F

ilipp

o Ca

rlot

dre

amst

ime

com

20

Annex Specific recommendations for Poland Germany France and Spain

What can Poland do to boost European rail services

1 Create fair conditions for infrastructure access

The current system of infrastructure access charges is extremely asymmetric and strongly favours road over rail transport Rail currently pays infrastructure access charges on 100 of the railway network (including layovers or the use of railway stations) while road (bus) operators pay charges only on 1 of Pol-ish roads and individual drivers pay only for selected sections of motorways representing around 02 of the entire network Infrastructure charges of road and rail should be aligned in all market segmentsmdashincluding international long-distance transport

The second problem is the high level of track access charges for rail operators As a first step track access charges in Poland should be reduced to the level of costs directly induced by the train journey This would reduce charges from the current 60 of total infrastructure maintenance costs to 30 These charges should go entirely to the Railway Fund and thus contribute to the development and construction of new railway lines (as is the case with roads) Maintenance costs should be covered through the general state budget ultimately the sys-tem of charges for transport infrastructure should be dependent on the level of external costs (pollution noise traffic safety etc)

4

21

2 Invest in interoperable rolling stock for international connections including night trains

The lack of interoperable rolling stock is a key obstacle for the launch of new international long-distance connections Due to the very limited number of in-ternational connections and small passenger flows it is not a priority for carrier investment As a result international rail operatorsmdashespecially night trainsmdashhave access only to old wagons of poor quality In addition international trains waste time at borders due to the lack of multi-system locomotives which could run on different voltage and safety systems In Poland an estimated 40 locomo-tives and approximately 350 wagons are needed to operate connections with other Eu countries (Germany Czech Republic Slovakia and Lithuania) To im-prove the quality and frequency of international connections Poland should launch an investment programme for interoperable rolling stock This could also help the country negotiate with the European union on the co-financing of rolling stock or even an Eu-financed rolling stock pool Currently the long-dis-tance segment is the only area of passenger railway in Poland not covered by any EU support programme for rolling stock

3 Elimination of barriers to entry for new railway carriers

One of the basic problems of the international transport offer is its malad-justment to modern market needs Trains run infrequently tickets are much more expensive than domestic services and there are no discounts available on international trains The reason is that the organisation of connections is left to the incumbent railway carriers from individual countries and inflexi-ble procedures for their cooperation (including archaic regulations on tariffs and ticket sales) The example of low-cost airlines shows that an effective instrument for changing this situation is opening the market to competition In the case of commercial services full deregulation of the market should be achieved Where financial support (PSO) is required to maintain traffic compet-itive tenders for carrier selection should be obligatory in accordance with the provisions of the Fourth Railway Package In the case of Poland it is essential to review and clarify the rules for market access The current regulation leaves room for misinterpretation and is commonly used to block the entry of new entrants to the market which may exert positive pressure on the quality scope and accessibility of services for passengers

22 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Germany do to boost European rail services

1 Reduce track access charges for passenger trains

According to Eu law track access charges should generally only reflect direct costs (wear and tear costs) but Germany for instance makes use of an ex-emption and charges full costs for passenger trains (ie including infrastructure maintenance costs) The German track access charges are as a consequence five times as high as the mere direct costs would be (CERRE 2018) This results in very high access charges for train operators accounting for around a third of total operation costs The average costs per kilometre for long-distance trains rose by 18 between 2013 and 2018 For freight rail Germany has already decided to halve its track access charges The same approach to passenger rail could be a first step in incentivising more international services and to make rail more competitive with other transport modes The lost income for infra-structure managers would need to come from Germanyrsquos general budget

2 Establish a competent national authority for long-distance rail

Germany is the only Eu member state without a national contracting authority for rail transport When Germany reformed its rail system in the 1990s it es-tablished in each of the federal states (Bundeslaumlnder) at least one contract-ing authority responsible for organising and ordering regional rail passenger services and for determining public service obligations There are now 27 re-gional contracting authorities but no such authority at federal level Article 87e(4) of the German constitution obliges the federal government to guarantee non-regional services and provides the legal basis for establishing a national contracting authority by law Yet after more than two decades Germany has still not introduced such a law meaning that all long-distancetrains need to run solely on a commercial basis

This has led to gaps in the national network of long-distance trains and raises the question of how Germany can implement its so-called lsquoDeutschlandtaktrsquo

23ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

an integrated timetable for 2030 which includes routes not commercially via-ble It also makes it more difficult to run international trains through Germany Operating international trains is usually more costly because of higher coor-dination and administration costs and the need to buy or lease interoperable rolling stock In contrast to many other Eu member states Germany provides no support for long-distance trains in the form of public service obligations (PSOs) and also seems to object toother governments covering the German part of the route with PSOs as a recent feasibility study on a StockholmmdashBrus-sels night train revealed

3 Electrify border crossings to Poland and Czech Republic

Most international long-distance trains today run on electricity which is not only cleaner but also faster Only 61 of Germanyrsquos railway network is elec-trified and only 27 of its 57 border crossings into neighbouring countries are electrified Most non-electrified border crossings are on the eastern borders 13 into the Czech Republic and eight into Poland The lack of electrification usually means that locomotives need to be changed at the border adding to travel times and that many faster trains cannot run on those sections To better connect with the east Germany should urgently electrify the following sections

Q CottbusmdashForstmdashLegnica 138 km electrification would speed up services from Berlin to Wroclaw and krakow

Q DresdenmdashGoumlrlitzmdashZgorzelec 95 km electrification would improve train connections between Dresden and Wrocław

Q RegensburgmdashFurth im Wald 131 km electrification would speed up ser-vices from Munich to Prague to less than four hours

Q NuumlrnbergmdashSchirndingmdashCheb 140 km electrification would reduce travel time between Nuremberg and Prague to less than four hours

copy Natalya Vilman dreamstimecom

24 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can France do to boost European rail services

1 Initiate a national strategy for a modal shift from air to rail

Massive modal shift is no longer an option but a necessity if France is to reach its targets of CO2 emissions Yet there is no long-term plan to reduce the number of flights taken for European travel Such a strategy is much needed as it would allow for long-term planning better coordination with the ERA and better coordination between long-distance and local trains

With an extensive network of railways lines already in place international con-nections do not require any major infrastructure works and couldbe created very quickly What is lacking is an integrated strategy to promote train over air for domestic and European travel France should set clear objectives in modal shift by 2030 and 2050 in accordance with national low carbon strategy (SNBC)

As long- and medium-distance train connections (both day and night ) can be an important asset to reach French climate targets France should create further incentives to boost this modal shift introducing VAT on European flights and reducing VAT on train travel Airport expansion projects in France should also be halted as they undermine efforts towards low emission mobility

2 Ease emergence of new players for long-distance connections

As the European rail market opens private and lsquohistoricrsquo incumbents will have the opportunity to operate new European connections This opening of the Eu-ropean train market will be an opportunity for new train companies to operate these trans-European connections To encourage lsquonewcomersrsquo France should guarantee that the services of these private companies will be able to set up their businesses and operate without obstacles set track access charges to its direct costs level and guarantee that newcomers will have access to public infrastructure and tracks

25ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

The opening of the market could also be an opportunity for incumbents such as SNCF As has been done with Thalys or Eurostar SNCF should initiate a part-nership with other national andor private companies to operate one or several of the European corridors that will be designed

It is quite possible to lsquostart smallrsquo operating only on the sections where infra-structure and rolling stock are compatible (ParismdashBerlin for example) and gradually extend the lines to reach full potential such as ParismdashWarsaw

3 Invest in night train rolling stock

Night trains can be a positive alternative to intra-Eu-ropean flights They can serve both domestic and international destinations However night trains in France have been on a downslide for several years The French government has recently announced that two new national train lines will be reopened This trend should be continued as the number of night trains gradually increases and night train lines extended to international destinations

For the night train renaissance France should in-vest euro150 million each year in rolling stock as the current stock is aging and far too limited This in-vestment will incentivise industries to produce new high-quality wagons designed for the night trains

At night some of the French track capacity is re-served for maintenance work and cannot be usedThis challenge can be overcome by starting with a small number of routes providing alternative routes when needed andor subsidising SNCF Reacute-seau so that maintenance work during the night can be lsquoun-optimisedrsquo that is take place over a longer period but without stopping traffic at night copy

Car

abin

er d

ream

stim

eco

m

26 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Spain do to boost European rail services

1 Refurbish upgrade and finalise cross-border connections between Spain Portugal and France

Cross-border connections between Spain and its neighbouring countries need an urgent upgrade to allow smooth fast and convenient passenger trips be-tween major southern European cities In the Basque country the rail lines between Hendaye and Irun should be quickly refurbished to avoid unneces-sary stop-overs and guarantee the integration of French high-speed network (ParismdashBordeauxmdashHendaye) with the Spanish high-speed line in construction between DonostiaBilbao and Vittoria (known as Basque Y) and then towards Madrid and other Spanish cities

In Central Pyrenees the historical line between Pau (Nouvelle Aquitaine) and Zaragoza (Aragon) via the monumental Canfranc International station should be relaunched by building the missing 30 km between Bedous (France) and Canfranc (Spain) This final work will increase freight and passenger connectiv-ity improve cross-border security and boost the economy of isolated regions highly dependent on tourism agriculture and industry

On the Atlantic side the cities of Lisbon and Madrid as well as Santiago de Com-postela (Galicia) and Porto need to be integrated into a high-performance network based on the upgrade of outdated rail tracks This connection would ensure the better cohesion and connection of geographically remote and pe-ripheral cities and regions with the rest of the European capitals

2 Relaunch night train services and long-distance conventional lines

Most of the night time and conventional trains between major southern Euro-pean cities (such as MadridmdashParis BarcelonamdashParis MadridmdashBarcelona Ma-dridmdashLisbon) have been abandoned in the last decade due to aggressive and unfair competition from low-cost airlines and long-distance buses However the climate crisis is pushing citizens towards low-carbon transport such as rail

27ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

Spanish citizens deserve affordable night trains and renovated long-distance trains that allow them to save time carbon and money avoiding expensive night hotels at origin and destination Relaunching cross-regional train lines is also a way to support safe inclusive and sustainable tourism in Mediterranean countries dramatically affected by the Covid crisis and related lockdowns

3 Increase the use of the network by opening the market and levelling the playing field

Spain has the longest high-speed network in Europe (2675 km) but it is the least used with only 13 billion passenger-kilometres in 2018 As a comparison France transported 49 billion passenger-km on a high-speed network of almost equal length (2548 km) When looking at passenger and freight rail together use intensity of the Spanish rail network (34 trains per day per route km) is also very low compared to the rest of Europe (146 in the Netherlands 96 in the UK 78 in Germany 43 in France)

As a large part of the high-speed infrastructure has been financed by the Eu the poor performance of rail in Spain is clearly an inefficient use of public money that should be solved by appropriate regulation and incentives The new law for sustainable mobility in the making is a unique opportunity to reverse those negative trends and fix historical pitfalls The opening of the network to new rail operators planned in 2021 should also contribute to increasing the number of passengers without building any new infrastructure Finally the rules for transport operators should be fair between air road and trains by integrating the environmental and social externalities and incentivising cleaner alternatives

copy A

leks

andr

Vor

obev

dre

amst

ime

com

28

References

BMVI (2020) Trans-Europe Express 20 httpswwwbmvideSharedDocsENDocumentsKinnovative-rail-transport-overnight-21-09-2020pdf__blob=publicationFile (accessed 26 November 2020)

CERRE (2018) Track Access ChargesmdashCase Study Germany httpscerreorgsitescerrefiles180509_CERRE_TrackAccessCharges_CaseStudy_Germa-ny_Finalpdf (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2018) Comprehensive analysis of the existing cross-bor-der rail transport connections and missing links on the internal EU borders httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-detail-publicatione68ec381-62f7-11e8-ab9c-01aa75ed71a1language-en (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2019) Remaining Challenges for EU-wide integrated ticketing and payment services httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-de-tail-publicationaf05b3eb-df43-11e9-9c4e-01aa75ed71a1 (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Court of Auditors (2018) A European high-speed rail network not a reality but an ineffective patchwork ECA Special Report httpswwwecaeuropaeuenPagesDocItemaspxdid=46398 (accessed 26 Novem-ber 2020)

Eurostat (2020) Air passenger transport between the main airports (data sets avia_par_fr avia_par_pl avia_par_de avia_par_es avia_par_b) httpseceuropaeueurostatwebmainhome (accessed 26 November 2020)

Independent Regulatorrsquos Group (IRG) (2020) 8th IRG-Rail Market Monitoring Report httpsirg-raileuirgdocumentsmarket-monitoring (accessed 26 November 2020)

International Railway Journal (2020) Spain urged to rebalance high-speed and suburban rail development 7 August 2020 httpswwwrailjournalcompassengerhigh-speedspain-urged-to-rebalance-high-speed-and-subur-ban-rail-investment (accessed 26 November 2020)

Page 20: Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe...Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe How the 2021 European Year of Rail can˜support the˜European Green Deal and a

20

Annex Specific recommendations for Poland Germany France and Spain

What can Poland do to boost European rail services

1 Create fair conditions for infrastructure access

The current system of infrastructure access charges is extremely asymmetric and strongly favours road over rail transport Rail currently pays infrastructure access charges on 100 of the railway network (including layovers or the use of railway stations) while road (bus) operators pay charges only on 1 of Pol-ish roads and individual drivers pay only for selected sections of motorways representing around 02 of the entire network Infrastructure charges of road and rail should be aligned in all market segmentsmdashincluding international long-distance transport

The second problem is the high level of track access charges for rail operators As a first step track access charges in Poland should be reduced to the level of costs directly induced by the train journey This would reduce charges from the current 60 of total infrastructure maintenance costs to 30 These charges should go entirely to the Railway Fund and thus contribute to the development and construction of new railway lines (as is the case with roads) Maintenance costs should be covered through the general state budget ultimately the sys-tem of charges for transport infrastructure should be dependent on the level of external costs (pollution noise traffic safety etc)

4

21

2 Invest in interoperable rolling stock for international connections including night trains

The lack of interoperable rolling stock is a key obstacle for the launch of new international long-distance connections Due to the very limited number of in-ternational connections and small passenger flows it is not a priority for carrier investment As a result international rail operatorsmdashespecially night trainsmdashhave access only to old wagons of poor quality In addition international trains waste time at borders due to the lack of multi-system locomotives which could run on different voltage and safety systems In Poland an estimated 40 locomo-tives and approximately 350 wagons are needed to operate connections with other Eu countries (Germany Czech Republic Slovakia and Lithuania) To im-prove the quality and frequency of international connections Poland should launch an investment programme for interoperable rolling stock This could also help the country negotiate with the European union on the co-financing of rolling stock or even an Eu-financed rolling stock pool Currently the long-dis-tance segment is the only area of passenger railway in Poland not covered by any EU support programme for rolling stock

3 Elimination of barriers to entry for new railway carriers

One of the basic problems of the international transport offer is its malad-justment to modern market needs Trains run infrequently tickets are much more expensive than domestic services and there are no discounts available on international trains The reason is that the organisation of connections is left to the incumbent railway carriers from individual countries and inflexi-ble procedures for their cooperation (including archaic regulations on tariffs and ticket sales) The example of low-cost airlines shows that an effective instrument for changing this situation is opening the market to competition In the case of commercial services full deregulation of the market should be achieved Where financial support (PSO) is required to maintain traffic compet-itive tenders for carrier selection should be obligatory in accordance with the provisions of the Fourth Railway Package In the case of Poland it is essential to review and clarify the rules for market access The current regulation leaves room for misinterpretation and is commonly used to block the entry of new entrants to the market which may exert positive pressure on the quality scope and accessibility of services for passengers

22 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Germany do to boost European rail services

1 Reduce track access charges for passenger trains

According to Eu law track access charges should generally only reflect direct costs (wear and tear costs) but Germany for instance makes use of an ex-emption and charges full costs for passenger trains (ie including infrastructure maintenance costs) The German track access charges are as a consequence five times as high as the mere direct costs would be (CERRE 2018) This results in very high access charges for train operators accounting for around a third of total operation costs The average costs per kilometre for long-distance trains rose by 18 between 2013 and 2018 For freight rail Germany has already decided to halve its track access charges The same approach to passenger rail could be a first step in incentivising more international services and to make rail more competitive with other transport modes The lost income for infra-structure managers would need to come from Germanyrsquos general budget

2 Establish a competent national authority for long-distance rail

Germany is the only Eu member state without a national contracting authority for rail transport When Germany reformed its rail system in the 1990s it es-tablished in each of the federal states (Bundeslaumlnder) at least one contract-ing authority responsible for organising and ordering regional rail passenger services and for determining public service obligations There are now 27 re-gional contracting authorities but no such authority at federal level Article 87e(4) of the German constitution obliges the federal government to guarantee non-regional services and provides the legal basis for establishing a national contracting authority by law Yet after more than two decades Germany has still not introduced such a law meaning that all long-distancetrains need to run solely on a commercial basis

This has led to gaps in the national network of long-distance trains and raises the question of how Germany can implement its so-called lsquoDeutschlandtaktrsquo

23ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

an integrated timetable for 2030 which includes routes not commercially via-ble It also makes it more difficult to run international trains through Germany Operating international trains is usually more costly because of higher coor-dination and administration costs and the need to buy or lease interoperable rolling stock In contrast to many other Eu member states Germany provides no support for long-distance trains in the form of public service obligations (PSOs) and also seems to object toother governments covering the German part of the route with PSOs as a recent feasibility study on a StockholmmdashBrus-sels night train revealed

3 Electrify border crossings to Poland and Czech Republic

Most international long-distance trains today run on electricity which is not only cleaner but also faster Only 61 of Germanyrsquos railway network is elec-trified and only 27 of its 57 border crossings into neighbouring countries are electrified Most non-electrified border crossings are on the eastern borders 13 into the Czech Republic and eight into Poland The lack of electrification usually means that locomotives need to be changed at the border adding to travel times and that many faster trains cannot run on those sections To better connect with the east Germany should urgently electrify the following sections

Q CottbusmdashForstmdashLegnica 138 km electrification would speed up services from Berlin to Wroclaw and krakow

Q DresdenmdashGoumlrlitzmdashZgorzelec 95 km electrification would improve train connections between Dresden and Wrocław

Q RegensburgmdashFurth im Wald 131 km electrification would speed up ser-vices from Munich to Prague to less than four hours

Q NuumlrnbergmdashSchirndingmdashCheb 140 km electrification would reduce travel time between Nuremberg and Prague to less than four hours

copy Natalya Vilman dreamstimecom

24 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can France do to boost European rail services

1 Initiate a national strategy for a modal shift from air to rail

Massive modal shift is no longer an option but a necessity if France is to reach its targets of CO2 emissions Yet there is no long-term plan to reduce the number of flights taken for European travel Such a strategy is much needed as it would allow for long-term planning better coordination with the ERA and better coordination between long-distance and local trains

With an extensive network of railways lines already in place international con-nections do not require any major infrastructure works and couldbe created very quickly What is lacking is an integrated strategy to promote train over air for domestic and European travel France should set clear objectives in modal shift by 2030 and 2050 in accordance with national low carbon strategy (SNBC)

As long- and medium-distance train connections (both day and night ) can be an important asset to reach French climate targets France should create further incentives to boost this modal shift introducing VAT on European flights and reducing VAT on train travel Airport expansion projects in France should also be halted as they undermine efforts towards low emission mobility

2 Ease emergence of new players for long-distance connections

As the European rail market opens private and lsquohistoricrsquo incumbents will have the opportunity to operate new European connections This opening of the Eu-ropean train market will be an opportunity for new train companies to operate these trans-European connections To encourage lsquonewcomersrsquo France should guarantee that the services of these private companies will be able to set up their businesses and operate without obstacles set track access charges to its direct costs level and guarantee that newcomers will have access to public infrastructure and tracks

25ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

The opening of the market could also be an opportunity for incumbents such as SNCF As has been done with Thalys or Eurostar SNCF should initiate a part-nership with other national andor private companies to operate one or several of the European corridors that will be designed

It is quite possible to lsquostart smallrsquo operating only on the sections where infra-structure and rolling stock are compatible (ParismdashBerlin for example) and gradually extend the lines to reach full potential such as ParismdashWarsaw

3 Invest in night train rolling stock

Night trains can be a positive alternative to intra-Eu-ropean flights They can serve both domestic and international destinations However night trains in France have been on a downslide for several years The French government has recently announced that two new national train lines will be reopened This trend should be continued as the number of night trains gradually increases and night train lines extended to international destinations

For the night train renaissance France should in-vest euro150 million each year in rolling stock as the current stock is aging and far too limited This in-vestment will incentivise industries to produce new high-quality wagons designed for the night trains

At night some of the French track capacity is re-served for maintenance work and cannot be usedThis challenge can be overcome by starting with a small number of routes providing alternative routes when needed andor subsidising SNCF Reacute-seau so that maintenance work during the night can be lsquoun-optimisedrsquo that is take place over a longer period but without stopping traffic at night copy

Car

abin

er d

ream

stim

eco

m

26 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Spain do to boost European rail services

1 Refurbish upgrade and finalise cross-border connections between Spain Portugal and France

Cross-border connections between Spain and its neighbouring countries need an urgent upgrade to allow smooth fast and convenient passenger trips be-tween major southern European cities In the Basque country the rail lines between Hendaye and Irun should be quickly refurbished to avoid unneces-sary stop-overs and guarantee the integration of French high-speed network (ParismdashBordeauxmdashHendaye) with the Spanish high-speed line in construction between DonostiaBilbao and Vittoria (known as Basque Y) and then towards Madrid and other Spanish cities

In Central Pyrenees the historical line between Pau (Nouvelle Aquitaine) and Zaragoza (Aragon) via the monumental Canfranc International station should be relaunched by building the missing 30 km between Bedous (France) and Canfranc (Spain) This final work will increase freight and passenger connectiv-ity improve cross-border security and boost the economy of isolated regions highly dependent on tourism agriculture and industry

On the Atlantic side the cities of Lisbon and Madrid as well as Santiago de Com-postela (Galicia) and Porto need to be integrated into a high-performance network based on the upgrade of outdated rail tracks This connection would ensure the better cohesion and connection of geographically remote and pe-ripheral cities and regions with the rest of the European capitals

2 Relaunch night train services and long-distance conventional lines

Most of the night time and conventional trains between major southern Euro-pean cities (such as MadridmdashParis BarcelonamdashParis MadridmdashBarcelona Ma-dridmdashLisbon) have been abandoned in the last decade due to aggressive and unfair competition from low-cost airlines and long-distance buses However the climate crisis is pushing citizens towards low-carbon transport such as rail

27ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

Spanish citizens deserve affordable night trains and renovated long-distance trains that allow them to save time carbon and money avoiding expensive night hotels at origin and destination Relaunching cross-regional train lines is also a way to support safe inclusive and sustainable tourism in Mediterranean countries dramatically affected by the Covid crisis and related lockdowns

3 Increase the use of the network by opening the market and levelling the playing field

Spain has the longest high-speed network in Europe (2675 km) but it is the least used with only 13 billion passenger-kilometres in 2018 As a comparison France transported 49 billion passenger-km on a high-speed network of almost equal length (2548 km) When looking at passenger and freight rail together use intensity of the Spanish rail network (34 trains per day per route km) is also very low compared to the rest of Europe (146 in the Netherlands 96 in the UK 78 in Germany 43 in France)

As a large part of the high-speed infrastructure has been financed by the Eu the poor performance of rail in Spain is clearly an inefficient use of public money that should be solved by appropriate regulation and incentives The new law for sustainable mobility in the making is a unique opportunity to reverse those negative trends and fix historical pitfalls The opening of the network to new rail operators planned in 2021 should also contribute to increasing the number of passengers without building any new infrastructure Finally the rules for transport operators should be fair between air road and trains by integrating the environmental and social externalities and incentivising cleaner alternatives

copy A

leks

andr

Vor

obev

dre

amst

ime

com

28

References

BMVI (2020) Trans-Europe Express 20 httpswwwbmvideSharedDocsENDocumentsKinnovative-rail-transport-overnight-21-09-2020pdf__blob=publicationFile (accessed 26 November 2020)

CERRE (2018) Track Access ChargesmdashCase Study Germany httpscerreorgsitescerrefiles180509_CERRE_TrackAccessCharges_CaseStudy_Germa-ny_Finalpdf (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2018) Comprehensive analysis of the existing cross-bor-der rail transport connections and missing links on the internal EU borders httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-detail-publicatione68ec381-62f7-11e8-ab9c-01aa75ed71a1language-en (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2019) Remaining Challenges for EU-wide integrated ticketing and payment services httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-de-tail-publicationaf05b3eb-df43-11e9-9c4e-01aa75ed71a1 (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Court of Auditors (2018) A European high-speed rail network not a reality but an ineffective patchwork ECA Special Report httpswwwecaeuropaeuenPagesDocItemaspxdid=46398 (accessed 26 Novem-ber 2020)

Eurostat (2020) Air passenger transport between the main airports (data sets avia_par_fr avia_par_pl avia_par_de avia_par_es avia_par_b) httpseceuropaeueurostatwebmainhome (accessed 26 November 2020)

Independent Regulatorrsquos Group (IRG) (2020) 8th IRG-Rail Market Monitoring Report httpsirg-raileuirgdocumentsmarket-monitoring (accessed 26 November 2020)

International Railway Journal (2020) Spain urged to rebalance high-speed and suburban rail development 7 August 2020 httpswwwrailjournalcompassengerhigh-speedspain-urged-to-rebalance-high-speed-and-subur-ban-rail-investment (accessed 26 November 2020)

Page 21: Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe...Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe How the 2021 European Year of Rail can˜support the˜European Green Deal and a

21

2 Invest in interoperable rolling stock for international connections including night trains

The lack of interoperable rolling stock is a key obstacle for the launch of new international long-distance connections Due to the very limited number of in-ternational connections and small passenger flows it is not a priority for carrier investment As a result international rail operatorsmdashespecially night trainsmdashhave access only to old wagons of poor quality In addition international trains waste time at borders due to the lack of multi-system locomotives which could run on different voltage and safety systems In Poland an estimated 40 locomo-tives and approximately 350 wagons are needed to operate connections with other Eu countries (Germany Czech Republic Slovakia and Lithuania) To im-prove the quality and frequency of international connections Poland should launch an investment programme for interoperable rolling stock This could also help the country negotiate with the European union on the co-financing of rolling stock or even an Eu-financed rolling stock pool Currently the long-dis-tance segment is the only area of passenger railway in Poland not covered by any EU support programme for rolling stock

3 Elimination of barriers to entry for new railway carriers

One of the basic problems of the international transport offer is its malad-justment to modern market needs Trains run infrequently tickets are much more expensive than domestic services and there are no discounts available on international trains The reason is that the organisation of connections is left to the incumbent railway carriers from individual countries and inflexi-ble procedures for their cooperation (including archaic regulations on tariffs and ticket sales) The example of low-cost airlines shows that an effective instrument for changing this situation is opening the market to competition In the case of commercial services full deregulation of the market should be achieved Where financial support (PSO) is required to maintain traffic compet-itive tenders for carrier selection should be obligatory in accordance with the provisions of the Fourth Railway Package In the case of Poland it is essential to review and clarify the rules for market access The current regulation leaves room for misinterpretation and is commonly used to block the entry of new entrants to the market which may exert positive pressure on the quality scope and accessibility of services for passengers

22 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Germany do to boost European rail services

1 Reduce track access charges for passenger trains

According to Eu law track access charges should generally only reflect direct costs (wear and tear costs) but Germany for instance makes use of an ex-emption and charges full costs for passenger trains (ie including infrastructure maintenance costs) The German track access charges are as a consequence five times as high as the mere direct costs would be (CERRE 2018) This results in very high access charges for train operators accounting for around a third of total operation costs The average costs per kilometre for long-distance trains rose by 18 between 2013 and 2018 For freight rail Germany has already decided to halve its track access charges The same approach to passenger rail could be a first step in incentivising more international services and to make rail more competitive with other transport modes The lost income for infra-structure managers would need to come from Germanyrsquos general budget

2 Establish a competent national authority for long-distance rail

Germany is the only Eu member state without a national contracting authority for rail transport When Germany reformed its rail system in the 1990s it es-tablished in each of the federal states (Bundeslaumlnder) at least one contract-ing authority responsible for organising and ordering regional rail passenger services and for determining public service obligations There are now 27 re-gional contracting authorities but no such authority at federal level Article 87e(4) of the German constitution obliges the federal government to guarantee non-regional services and provides the legal basis for establishing a national contracting authority by law Yet after more than two decades Germany has still not introduced such a law meaning that all long-distancetrains need to run solely on a commercial basis

This has led to gaps in the national network of long-distance trains and raises the question of how Germany can implement its so-called lsquoDeutschlandtaktrsquo

23ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

an integrated timetable for 2030 which includes routes not commercially via-ble It also makes it more difficult to run international trains through Germany Operating international trains is usually more costly because of higher coor-dination and administration costs and the need to buy or lease interoperable rolling stock In contrast to many other Eu member states Germany provides no support for long-distance trains in the form of public service obligations (PSOs) and also seems to object toother governments covering the German part of the route with PSOs as a recent feasibility study on a StockholmmdashBrus-sels night train revealed

3 Electrify border crossings to Poland and Czech Republic

Most international long-distance trains today run on electricity which is not only cleaner but also faster Only 61 of Germanyrsquos railway network is elec-trified and only 27 of its 57 border crossings into neighbouring countries are electrified Most non-electrified border crossings are on the eastern borders 13 into the Czech Republic and eight into Poland The lack of electrification usually means that locomotives need to be changed at the border adding to travel times and that many faster trains cannot run on those sections To better connect with the east Germany should urgently electrify the following sections

Q CottbusmdashForstmdashLegnica 138 km electrification would speed up services from Berlin to Wroclaw and krakow

Q DresdenmdashGoumlrlitzmdashZgorzelec 95 km electrification would improve train connections between Dresden and Wrocław

Q RegensburgmdashFurth im Wald 131 km electrification would speed up ser-vices from Munich to Prague to less than four hours

Q NuumlrnbergmdashSchirndingmdashCheb 140 km electrification would reduce travel time between Nuremberg and Prague to less than four hours

copy Natalya Vilman dreamstimecom

24 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can France do to boost European rail services

1 Initiate a national strategy for a modal shift from air to rail

Massive modal shift is no longer an option but a necessity if France is to reach its targets of CO2 emissions Yet there is no long-term plan to reduce the number of flights taken for European travel Such a strategy is much needed as it would allow for long-term planning better coordination with the ERA and better coordination between long-distance and local trains

With an extensive network of railways lines already in place international con-nections do not require any major infrastructure works and couldbe created very quickly What is lacking is an integrated strategy to promote train over air for domestic and European travel France should set clear objectives in modal shift by 2030 and 2050 in accordance with national low carbon strategy (SNBC)

As long- and medium-distance train connections (both day and night ) can be an important asset to reach French climate targets France should create further incentives to boost this modal shift introducing VAT on European flights and reducing VAT on train travel Airport expansion projects in France should also be halted as they undermine efforts towards low emission mobility

2 Ease emergence of new players for long-distance connections

As the European rail market opens private and lsquohistoricrsquo incumbents will have the opportunity to operate new European connections This opening of the Eu-ropean train market will be an opportunity for new train companies to operate these trans-European connections To encourage lsquonewcomersrsquo France should guarantee that the services of these private companies will be able to set up their businesses and operate without obstacles set track access charges to its direct costs level and guarantee that newcomers will have access to public infrastructure and tracks

25ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

The opening of the market could also be an opportunity for incumbents such as SNCF As has been done with Thalys or Eurostar SNCF should initiate a part-nership with other national andor private companies to operate one or several of the European corridors that will be designed

It is quite possible to lsquostart smallrsquo operating only on the sections where infra-structure and rolling stock are compatible (ParismdashBerlin for example) and gradually extend the lines to reach full potential such as ParismdashWarsaw

3 Invest in night train rolling stock

Night trains can be a positive alternative to intra-Eu-ropean flights They can serve both domestic and international destinations However night trains in France have been on a downslide for several years The French government has recently announced that two new national train lines will be reopened This trend should be continued as the number of night trains gradually increases and night train lines extended to international destinations

For the night train renaissance France should in-vest euro150 million each year in rolling stock as the current stock is aging and far too limited This in-vestment will incentivise industries to produce new high-quality wagons designed for the night trains

At night some of the French track capacity is re-served for maintenance work and cannot be usedThis challenge can be overcome by starting with a small number of routes providing alternative routes when needed andor subsidising SNCF Reacute-seau so that maintenance work during the night can be lsquoun-optimisedrsquo that is take place over a longer period but without stopping traffic at night copy

Car

abin

er d

ream

stim

eco

m

26 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Spain do to boost European rail services

1 Refurbish upgrade and finalise cross-border connections between Spain Portugal and France

Cross-border connections between Spain and its neighbouring countries need an urgent upgrade to allow smooth fast and convenient passenger trips be-tween major southern European cities In the Basque country the rail lines between Hendaye and Irun should be quickly refurbished to avoid unneces-sary stop-overs and guarantee the integration of French high-speed network (ParismdashBordeauxmdashHendaye) with the Spanish high-speed line in construction between DonostiaBilbao and Vittoria (known as Basque Y) and then towards Madrid and other Spanish cities

In Central Pyrenees the historical line between Pau (Nouvelle Aquitaine) and Zaragoza (Aragon) via the monumental Canfranc International station should be relaunched by building the missing 30 km between Bedous (France) and Canfranc (Spain) This final work will increase freight and passenger connectiv-ity improve cross-border security and boost the economy of isolated regions highly dependent on tourism agriculture and industry

On the Atlantic side the cities of Lisbon and Madrid as well as Santiago de Com-postela (Galicia) and Porto need to be integrated into a high-performance network based on the upgrade of outdated rail tracks This connection would ensure the better cohesion and connection of geographically remote and pe-ripheral cities and regions with the rest of the European capitals

2 Relaunch night train services and long-distance conventional lines

Most of the night time and conventional trains between major southern Euro-pean cities (such as MadridmdashParis BarcelonamdashParis MadridmdashBarcelona Ma-dridmdashLisbon) have been abandoned in the last decade due to aggressive and unfair competition from low-cost airlines and long-distance buses However the climate crisis is pushing citizens towards low-carbon transport such as rail

27ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

Spanish citizens deserve affordable night trains and renovated long-distance trains that allow them to save time carbon and money avoiding expensive night hotels at origin and destination Relaunching cross-regional train lines is also a way to support safe inclusive and sustainable tourism in Mediterranean countries dramatically affected by the Covid crisis and related lockdowns

3 Increase the use of the network by opening the market and levelling the playing field

Spain has the longest high-speed network in Europe (2675 km) but it is the least used with only 13 billion passenger-kilometres in 2018 As a comparison France transported 49 billion passenger-km on a high-speed network of almost equal length (2548 km) When looking at passenger and freight rail together use intensity of the Spanish rail network (34 trains per day per route km) is also very low compared to the rest of Europe (146 in the Netherlands 96 in the UK 78 in Germany 43 in France)

As a large part of the high-speed infrastructure has been financed by the Eu the poor performance of rail in Spain is clearly an inefficient use of public money that should be solved by appropriate regulation and incentives The new law for sustainable mobility in the making is a unique opportunity to reverse those negative trends and fix historical pitfalls The opening of the network to new rail operators planned in 2021 should also contribute to increasing the number of passengers without building any new infrastructure Finally the rules for transport operators should be fair between air road and trains by integrating the environmental and social externalities and incentivising cleaner alternatives

copy A

leks

andr

Vor

obev

dre

amst

ime

com

28

References

BMVI (2020) Trans-Europe Express 20 httpswwwbmvideSharedDocsENDocumentsKinnovative-rail-transport-overnight-21-09-2020pdf__blob=publicationFile (accessed 26 November 2020)

CERRE (2018) Track Access ChargesmdashCase Study Germany httpscerreorgsitescerrefiles180509_CERRE_TrackAccessCharges_CaseStudy_Germa-ny_Finalpdf (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2018) Comprehensive analysis of the existing cross-bor-der rail transport connections and missing links on the internal EU borders httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-detail-publicatione68ec381-62f7-11e8-ab9c-01aa75ed71a1language-en (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2019) Remaining Challenges for EU-wide integrated ticketing and payment services httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-de-tail-publicationaf05b3eb-df43-11e9-9c4e-01aa75ed71a1 (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Court of Auditors (2018) A European high-speed rail network not a reality but an ineffective patchwork ECA Special Report httpswwwecaeuropaeuenPagesDocItemaspxdid=46398 (accessed 26 Novem-ber 2020)

Eurostat (2020) Air passenger transport between the main airports (data sets avia_par_fr avia_par_pl avia_par_de avia_par_es avia_par_b) httpseceuropaeueurostatwebmainhome (accessed 26 November 2020)

Independent Regulatorrsquos Group (IRG) (2020) 8th IRG-Rail Market Monitoring Report httpsirg-raileuirgdocumentsmarket-monitoring (accessed 26 November 2020)

International Railway Journal (2020) Spain urged to rebalance high-speed and suburban rail development 7 August 2020 httpswwwrailjournalcompassengerhigh-speedspain-urged-to-rebalance-high-speed-and-subur-ban-rail-investment (accessed 26 November 2020)

Page 22: Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe...Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe How the 2021 European Year of Rail can˜support the˜European Green Deal and a

22 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Germany do to boost European rail services

1 Reduce track access charges for passenger trains

According to Eu law track access charges should generally only reflect direct costs (wear and tear costs) but Germany for instance makes use of an ex-emption and charges full costs for passenger trains (ie including infrastructure maintenance costs) The German track access charges are as a consequence five times as high as the mere direct costs would be (CERRE 2018) This results in very high access charges for train operators accounting for around a third of total operation costs The average costs per kilometre for long-distance trains rose by 18 between 2013 and 2018 For freight rail Germany has already decided to halve its track access charges The same approach to passenger rail could be a first step in incentivising more international services and to make rail more competitive with other transport modes The lost income for infra-structure managers would need to come from Germanyrsquos general budget

2 Establish a competent national authority for long-distance rail

Germany is the only Eu member state without a national contracting authority for rail transport When Germany reformed its rail system in the 1990s it es-tablished in each of the federal states (Bundeslaumlnder) at least one contract-ing authority responsible for organising and ordering regional rail passenger services and for determining public service obligations There are now 27 re-gional contracting authorities but no such authority at federal level Article 87e(4) of the German constitution obliges the federal government to guarantee non-regional services and provides the legal basis for establishing a national contracting authority by law Yet after more than two decades Germany has still not introduced such a law meaning that all long-distancetrains need to run solely on a commercial basis

This has led to gaps in the national network of long-distance trains and raises the question of how Germany can implement its so-called lsquoDeutschlandtaktrsquo

23ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

an integrated timetable for 2030 which includes routes not commercially via-ble It also makes it more difficult to run international trains through Germany Operating international trains is usually more costly because of higher coor-dination and administration costs and the need to buy or lease interoperable rolling stock In contrast to many other Eu member states Germany provides no support for long-distance trains in the form of public service obligations (PSOs) and also seems to object toother governments covering the German part of the route with PSOs as a recent feasibility study on a StockholmmdashBrus-sels night train revealed

3 Electrify border crossings to Poland and Czech Republic

Most international long-distance trains today run on electricity which is not only cleaner but also faster Only 61 of Germanyrsquos railway network is elec-trified and only 27 of its 57 border crossings into neighbouring countries are electrified Most non-electrified border crossings are on the eastern borders 13 into the Czech Republic and eight into Poland The lack of electrification usually means that locomotives need to be changed at the border adding to travel times and that many faster trains cannot run on those sections To better connect with the east Germany should urgently electrify the following sections

Q CottbusmdashForstmdashLegnica 138 km electrification would speed up services from Berlin to Wroclaw and krakow

Q DresdenmdashGoumlrlitzmdashZgorzelec 95 km electrification would improve train connections between Dresden and Wrocław

Q RegensburgmdashFurth im Wald 131 km electrification would speed up ser-vices from Munich to Prague to less than four hours

Q NuumlrnbergmdashSchirndingmdashCheb 140 km electrification would reduce travel time between Nuremberg and Prague to less than four hours

copy Natalya Vilman dreamstimecom

24 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can France do to boost European rail services

1 Initiate a national strategy for a modal shift from air to rail

Massive modal shift is no longer an option but a necessity if France is to reach its targets of CO2 emissions Yet there is no long-term plan to reduce the number of flights taken for European travel Such a strategy is much needed as it would allow for long-term planning better coordination with the ERA and better coordination between long-distance and local trains

With an extensive network of railways lines already in place international con-nections do not require any major infrastructure works and couldbe created very quickly What is lacking is an integrated strategy to promote train over air for domestic and European travel France should set clear objectives in modal shift by 2030 and 2050 in accordance with national low carbon strategy (SNBC)

As long- and medium-distance train connections (both day and night ) can be an important asset to reach French climate targets France should create further incentives to boost this modal shift introducing VAT on European flights and reducing VAT on train travel Airport expansion projects in France should also be halted as they undermine efforts towards low emission mobility

2 Ease emergence of new players for long-distance connections

As the European rail market opens private and lsquohistoricrsquo incumbents will have the opportunity to operate new European connections This opening of the Eu-ropean train market will be an opportunity for new train companies to operate these trans-European connections To encourage lsquonewcomersrsquo France should guarantee that the services of these private companies will be able to set up their businesses and operate without obstacles set track access charges to its direct costs level and guarantee that newcomers will have access to public infrastructure and tracks

25ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

The opening of the market could also be an opportunity for incumbents such as SNCF As has been done with Thalys or Eurostar SNCF should initiate a part-nership with other national andor private companies to operate one or several of the European corridors that will be designed

It is quite possible to lsquostart smallrsquo operating only on the sections where infra-structure and rolling stock are compatible (ParismdashBerlin for example) and gradually extend the lines to reach full potential such as ParismdashWarsaw

3 Invest in night train rolling stock

Night trains can be a positive alternative to intra-Eu-ropean flights They can serve both domestic and international destinations However night trains in France have been on a downslide for several years The French government has recently announced that two new national train lines will be reopened This trend should be continued as the number of night trains gradually increases and night train lines extended to international destinations

For the night train renaissance France should in-vest euro150 million each year in rolling stock as the current stock is aging and far too limited This in-vestment will incentivise industries to produce new high-quality wagons designed for the night trains

At night some of the French track capacity is re-served for maintenance work and cannot be usedThis challenge can be overcome by starting with a small number of routes providing alternative routes when needed andor subsidising SNCF Reacute-seau so that maintenance work during the night can be lsquoun-optimisedrsquo that is take place over a longer period but without stopping traffic at night copy

Car

abin

er d

ream

stim

eco

m

26 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Spain do to boost European rail services

1 Refurbish upgrade and finalise cross-border connections between Spain Portugal and France

Cross-border connections between Spain and its neighbouring countries need an urgent upgrade to allow smooth fast and convenient passenger trips be-tween major southern European cities In the Basque country the rail lines between Hendaye and Irun should be quickly refurbished to avoid unneces-sary stop-overs and guarantee the integration of French high-speed network (ParismdashBordeauxmdashHendaye) with the Spanish high-speed line in construction between DonostiaBilbao and Vittoria (known as Basque Y) and then towards Madrid and other Spanish cities

In Central Pyrenees the historical line between Pau (Nouvelle Aquitaine) and Zaragoza (Aragon) via the monumental Canfranc International station should be relaunched by building the missing 30 km between Bedous (France) and Canfranc (Spain) This final work will increase freight and passenger connectiv-ity improve cross-border security and boost the economy of isolated regions highly dependent on tourism agriculture and industry

On the Atlantic side the cities of Lisbon and Madrid as well as Santiago de Com-postela (Galicia) and Porto need to be integrated into a high-performance network based on the upgrade of outdated rail tracks This connection would ensure the better cohesion and connection of geographically remote and pe-ripheral cities and regions with the rest of the European capitals

2 Relaunch night train services and long-distance conventional lines

Most of the night time and conventional trains between major southern Euro-pean cities (such as MadridmdashParis BarcelonamdashParis MadridmdashBarcelona Ma-dridmdashLisbon) have been abandoned in the last decade due to aggressive and unfair competition from low-cost airlines and long-distance buses However the climate crisis is pushing citizens towards low-carbon transport such as rail

27ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

Spanish citizens deserve affordable night trains and renovated long-distance trains that allow them to save time carbon and money avoiding expensive night hotels at origin and destination Relaunching cross-regional train lines is also a way to support safe inclusive and sustainable tourism in Mediterranean countries dramatically affected by the Covid crisis and related lockdowns

3 Increase the use of the network by opening the market and levelling the playing field

Spain has the longest high-speed network in Europe (2675 km) but it is the least used with only 13 billion passenger-kilometres in 2018 As a comparison France transported 49 billion passenger-km on a high-speed network of almost equal length (2548 km) When looking at passenger and freight rail together use intensity of the Spanish rail network (34 trains per day per route km) is also very low compared to the rest of Europe (146 in the Netherlands 96 in the UK 78 in Germany 43 in France)

As a large part of the high-speed infrastructure has been financed by the Eu the poor performance of rail in Spain is clearly an inefficient use of public money that should be solved by appropriate regulation and incentives The new law for sustainable mobility in the making is a unique opportunity to reverse those negative trends and fix historical pitfalls The opening of the network to new rail operators planned in 2021 should also contribute to increasing the number of passengers without building any new infrastructure Finally the rules for transport operators should be fair between air road and trains by integrating the environmental and social externalities and incentivising cleaner alternatives

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28

References

BMVI (2020) Trans-Europe Express 20 httpswwwbmvideSharedDocsENDocumentsKinnovative-rail-transport-overnight-21-09-2020pdf__blob=publicationFile (accessed 26 November 2020)

CERRE (2018) Track Access ChargesmdashCase Study Germany httpscerreorgsitescerrefiles180509_CERRE_TrackAccessCharges_CaseStudy_Germa-ny_Finalpdf (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2018) Comprehensive analysis of the existing cross-bor-der rail transport connections and missing links on the internal EU borders httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-detail-publicatione68ec381-62f7-11e8-ab9c-01aa75ed71a1language-en (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2019) Remaining Challenges for EU-wide integrated ticketing and payment services httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-de-tail-publicationaf05b3eb-df43-11e9-9c4e-01aa75ed71a1 (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Court of Auditors (2018) A European high-speed rail network not a reality but an ineffective patchwork ECA Special Report httpswwwecaeuropaeuenPagesDocItemaspxdid=46398 (accessed 26 Novem-ber 2020)

Eurostat (2020) Air passenger transport between the main airports (data sets avia_par_fr avia_par_pl avia_par_de avia_par_es avia_par_b) httpseceuropaeueurostatwebmainhome (accessed 26 November 2020)

Independent Regulatorrsquos Group (IRG) (2020) 8th IRG-Rail Market Monitoring Report httpsirg-raileuirgdocumentsmarket-monitoring (accessed 26 November 2020)

International Railway Journal (2020) Spain urged to rebalance high-speed and suburban rail development 7 August 2020 httpswwwrailjournalcompassengerhigh-speedspain-urged-to-rebalance-high-speed-and-subur-ban-rail-investment (accessed 26 November 2020)

Page 23: Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe...Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe How the 2021 European Year of Rail can˜support the˜European Green Deal and a

23ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

an integrated timetable for 2030 which includes routes not commercially via-ble It also makes it more difficult to run international trains through Germany Operating international trains is usually more costly because of higher coor-dination and administration costs and the need to buy or lease interoperable rolling stock In contrast to many other Eu member states Germany provides no support for long-distance trains in the form of public service obligations (PSOs) and also seems to object toother governments covering the German part of the route with PSOs as a recent feasibility study on a StockholmmdashBrus-sels night train revealed

3 Electrify border crossings to Poland and Czech Republic

Most international long-distance trains today run on electricity which is not only cleaner but also faster Only 61 of Germanyrsquos railway network is elec-trified and only 27 of its 57 border crossings into neighbouring countries are electrified Most non-electrified border crossings are on the eastern borders 13 into the Czech Republic and eight into Poland The lack of electrification usually means that locomotives need to be changed at the border adding to travel times and that many faster trains cannot run on those sections To better connect with the east Germany should urgently electrify the following sections

Q CottbusmdashForstmdashLegnica 138 km electrification would speed up services from Berlin to Wroclaw and krakow

Q DresdenmdashGoumlrlitzmdashZgorzelec 95 km electrification would improve train connections between Dresden and Wrocław

Q RegensburgmdashFurth im Wald 131 km electrification would speed up ser-vices from Munich to Prague to less than four hours

Q NuumlrnbergmdashSchirndingmdashCheb 140 km electrification would reduce travel time between Nuremberg and Prague to less than four hours

copy Natalya Vilman dreamstimecom

24 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can France do to boost European rail services

1 Initiate a national strategy for a modal shift from air to rail

Massive modal shift is no longer an option but a necessity if France is to reach its targets of CO2 emissions Yet there is no long-term plan to reduce the number of flights taken for European travel Such a strategy is much needed as it would allow for long-term planning better coordination with the ERA and better coordination between long-distance and local trains

With an extensive network of railways lines already in place international con-nections do not require any major infrastructure works and couldbe created very quickly What is lacking is an integrated strategy to promote train over air for domestic and European travel France should set clear objectives in modal shift by 2030 and 2050 in accordance with national low carbon strategy (SNBC)

As long- and medium-distance train connections (both day and night ) can be an important asset to reach French climate targets France should create further incentives to boost this modal shift introducing VAT on European flights and reducing VAT on train travel Airport expansion projects in France should also be halted as they undermine efforts towards low emission mobility

2 Ease emergence of new players for long-distance connections

As the European rail market opens private and lsquohistoricrsquo incumbents will have the opportunity to operate new European connections This opening of the Eu-ropean train market will be an opportunity for new train companies to operate these trans-European connections To encourage lsquonewcomersrsquo France should guarantee that the services of these private companies will be able to set up their businesses and operate without obstacles set track access charges to its direct costs level and guarantee that newcomers will have access to public infrastructure and tracks

25ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

The opening of the market could also be an opportunity for incumbents such as SNCF As has been done with Thalys or Eurostar SNCF should initiate a part-nership with other national andor private companies to operate one or several of the European corridors that will be designed

It is quite possible to lsquostart smallrsquo operating only on the sections where infra-structure and rolling stock are compatible (ParismdashBerlin for example) and gradually extend the lines to reach full potential such as ParismdashWarsaw

3 Invest in night train rolling stock

Night trains can be a positive alternative to intra-Eu-ropean flights They can serve both domestic and international destinations However night trains in France have been on a downslide for several years The French government has recently announced that two new national train lines will be reopened This trend should be continued as the number of night trains gradually increases and night train lines extended to international destinations

For the night train renaissance France should in-vest euro150 million each year in rolling stock as the current stock is aging and far too limited This in-vestment will incentivise industries to produce new high-quality wagons designed for the night trains

At night some of the French track capacity is re-served for maintenance work and cannot be usedThis challenge can be overcome by starting with a small number of routes providing alternative routes when needed andor subsidising SNCF Reacute-seau so that maintenance work during the night can be lsquoun-optimisedrsquo that is take place over a longer period but without stopping traffic at night copy

Car

abin

er d

ream

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eco

m

26 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Spain do to boost European rail services

1 Refurbish upgrade and finalise cross-border connections between Spain Portugal and France

Cross-border connections between Spain and its neighbouring countries need an urgent upgrade to allow smooth fast and convenient passenger trips be-tween major southern European cities In the Basque country the rail lines between Hendaye and Irun should be quickly refurbished to avoid unneces-sary stop-overs and guarantee the integration of French high-speed network (ParismdashBordeauxmdashHendaye) with the Spanish high-speed line in construction between DonostiaBilbao and Vittoria (known as Basque Y) and then towards Madrid and other Spanish cities

In Central Pyrenees the historical line between Pau (Nouvelle Aquitaine) and Zaragoza (Aragon) via the monumental Canfranc International station should be relaunched by building the missing 30 km between Bedous (France) and Canfranc (Spain) This final work will increase freight and passenger connectiv-ity improve cross-border security and boost the economy of isolated regions highly dependent on tourism agriculture and industry

On the Atlantic side the cities of Lisbon and Madrid as well as Santiago de Com-postela (Galicia) and Porto need to be integrated into a high-performance network based on the upgrade of outdated rail tracks This connection would ensure the better cohesion and connection of geographically remote and pe-ripheral cities and regions with the rest of the European capitals

2 Relaunch night train services and long-distance conventional lines

Most of the night time and conventional trains between major southern Euro-pean cities (such as MadridmdashParis BarcelonamdashParis MadridmdashBarcelona Ma-dridmdashLisbon) have been abandoned in the last decade due to aggressive and unfair competition from low-cost airlines and long-distance buses However the climate crisis is pushing citizens towards low-carbon transport such as rail

27ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

Spanish citizens deserve affordable night trains and renovated long-distance trains that allow them to save time carbon and money avoiding expensive night hotels at origin and destination Relaunching cross-regional train lines is also a way to support safe inclusive and sustainable tourism in Mediterranean countries dramatically affected by the Covid crisis and related lockdowns

3 Increase the use of the network by opening the market and levelling the playing field

Spain has the longest high-speed network in Europe (2675 km) but it is the least used with only 13 billion passenger-kilometres in 2018 As a comparison France transported 49 billion passenger-km on a high-speed network of almost equal length (2548 km) When looking at passenger and freight rail together use intensity of the Spanish rail network (34 trains per day per route km) is also very low compared to the rest of Europe (146 in the Netherlands 96 in the UK 78 in Germany 43 in France)

As a large part of the high-speed infrastructure has been financed by the Eu the poor performance of rail in Spain is clearly an inefficient use of public money that should be solved by appropriate regulation and incentives The new law for sustainable mobility in the making is a unique opportunity to reverse those negative trends and fix historical pitfalls The opening of the network to new rail operators planned in 2021 should also contribute to increasing the number of passengers without building any new infrastructure Finally the rules for transport operators should be fair between air road and trains by integrating the environmental and social externalities and incentivising cleaner alternatives

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28

References

BMVI (2020) Trans-Europe Express 20 httpswwwbmvideSharedDocsENDocumentsKinnovative-rail-transport-overnight-21-09-2020pdf__blob=publicationFile (accessed 26 November 2020)

CERRE (2018) Track Access ChargesmdashCase Study Germany httpscerreorgsitescerrefiles180509_CERRE_TrackAccessCharges_CaseStudy_Germa-ny_Finalpdf (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2018) Comprehensive analysis of the existing cross-bor-der rail transport connections and missing links on the internal EU borders httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-detail-publicatione68ec381-62f7-11e8-ab9c-01aa75ed71a1language-en (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2019) Remaining Challenges for EU-wide integrated ticketing and payment services httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-de-tail-publicationaf05b3eb-df43-11e9-9c4e-01aa75ed71a1 (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Court of Auditors (2018) A European high-speed rail network not a reality but an ineffective patchwork ECA Special Report httpswwwecaeuropaeuenPagesDocItemaspxdid=46398 (accessed 26 Novem-ber 2020)

Eurostat (2020) Air passenger transport between the main airports (data sets avia_par_fr avia_par_pl avia_par_de avia_par_es avia_par_b) httpseceuropaeueurostatwebmainhome (accessed 26 November 2020)

Independent Regulatorrsquos Group (IRG) (2020) 8th IRG-Rail Market Monitoring Report httpsirg-raileuirgdocumentsmarket-monitoring (accessed 26 November 2020)

International Railway Journal (2020) Spain urged to rebalance high-speed and suburban rail development 7 August 2020 httpswwwrailjournalcompassengerhigh-speedspain-urged-to-rebalance-high-speed-and-subur-ban-rail-investment (accessed 26 November 2020)

Page 24: Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe...Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe How the 2021 European Year of Rail can˜support the˜European Green Deal and a

24 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can France do to boost European rail services

1 Initiate a national strategy for a modal shift from air to rail

Massive modal shift is no longer an option but a necessity if France is to reach its targets of CO2 emissions Yet there is no long-term plan to reduce the number of flights taken for European travel Such a strategy is much needed as it would allow for long-term planning better coordination with the ERA and better coordination between long-distance and local trains

With an extensive network of railways lines already in place international con-nections do not require any major infrastructure works and couldbe created very quickly What is lacking is an integrated strategy to promote train over air for domestic and European travel France should set clear objectives in modal shift by 2030 and 2050 in accordance with national low carbon strategy (SNBC)

As long- and medium-distance train connections (both day and night ) can be an important asset to reach French climate targets France should create further incentives to boost this modal shift introducing VAT on European flights and reducing VAT on train travel Airport expansion projects in France should also be halted as they undermine efforts towards low emission mobility

2 Ease emergence of new players for long-distance connections

As the European rail market opens private and lsquohistoricrsquo incumbents will have the opportunity to operate new European connections This opening of the Eu-ropean train market will be an opportunity for new train companies to operate these trans-European connections To encourage lsquonewcomersrsquo France should guarantee that the services of these private companies will be able to set up their businesses and operate without obstacles set track access charges to its direct costs level and guarantee that newcomers will have access to public infrastructure and tracks

25ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

The opening of the market could also be an opportunity for incumbents such as SNCF As has been done with Thalys or Eurostar SNCF should initiate a part-nership with other national andor private companies to operate one or several of the European corridors that will be designed

It is quite possible to lsquostart smallrsquo operating only on the sections where infra-structure and rolling stock are compatible (ParismdashBerlin for example) and gradually extend the lines to reach full potential such as ParismdashWarsaw

3 Invest in night train rolling stock

Night trains can be a positive alternative to intra-Eu-ropean flights They can serve both domestic and international destinations However night trains in France have been on a downslide for several years The French government has recently announced that two new national train lines will be reopened This trend should be continued as the number of night trains gradually increases and night train lines extended to international destinations

For the night train renaissance France should in-vest euro150 million each year in rolling stock as the current stock is aging and far too limited This in-vestment will incentivise industries to produce new high-quality wagons designed for the night trains

At night some of the French track capacity is re-served for maintenance work and cannot be usedThis challenge can be overcome by starting with a small number of routes providing alternative routes when needed andor subsidising SNCF Reacute-seau so that maintenance work during the night can be lsquoun-optimisedrsquo that is take place over a longer period but without stopping traffic at night copy

Car

abin

er d

ream

stim

eco

m

26 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Spain do to boost European rail services

1 Refurbish upgrade and finalise cross-border connections between Spain Portugal and France

Cross-border connections between Spain and its neighbouring countries need an urgent upgrade to allow smooth fast and convenient passenger trips be-tween major southern European cities In the Basque country the rail lines between Hendaye and Irun should be quickly refurbished to avoid unneces-sary stop-overs and guarantee the integration of French high-speed network (ParismdashBordeauxmdashHendaye) with the Spanish high-speed line in construction between DonostiaBilbao and Vittoria (known as Basque Y) and then towards Madrid and other Spanish cities

In Central Pyrenees the historical line between Pau (Nouvelle Aquitaine) and Zaragoza (Aragon) via the monumental Canfranc International station should be relaunched by building the missing 30 km between Bedous (France) and Canfranc (Spain) This final work will increase freight and passenger connectiv-ity improve cross-border security and boost the economy of isolated regions highly dependent on tourism agriculture and industry

On the Atlantic side the cities of Lisbon and Madrid as well as Santiago de Com-postela (Galicia) and Porto need to be integrated into a high-performance network based on the upgrade of outdated rail tracks This connection would ensure the better cohesion and connection of geographically remote and pe-ripheral cities and regions with the rest of the European capitals

2 Relaunch night train services and long-distance conventional lines

Most of the night time and conventional trains between major southern Euro-pean cities (such as MadridmdashParis BarcelonamdashParis MadridmdashBarcelona Ma-dridmdashLisbon) have been abandoned in the last decade due to aggressive and unfair competition from low-cost airlines and long-distance buses However the climate crisis is pushing citizens towards low-carbon transport such as rail

27ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

Spanish citizens deserve affordable night trains and renovated long-distance trains that allow them to save time carbon and money avoiding expensive night hotels at origin and destination Relaunching cross-regional train lines is also a way to support safe inclusive and sustainable tourism in Mediterranean countries dramatically affected by the Covid crisis and related lockdowns

3 Increase the use of the network by opening the market and levelling the playing field

Spain has the longest high-speed network in Europe (2675 km) but it is the least used with only 13 billion passenger-kilometres in 2018 As a comparison France transported 49 billion passenger-km on a high-speed network of almost equal length (2548 km) When looking at passenger and freight rail together use intensity of the Spanish rail network (34 trains per day per route km) is also very low compared to the rest of Europe (146 in the Netherlands 96 in the UK 78 in Germany 43 in France)

As a large part of the high-speed infrastructure has been financed by the Eu the poor performance of rail in Spain is clearly an inefficient use of public money that should be solved by appropriate regulation and incentives The new law for sustainable mobility in the making is a unique opportunity to reverse those negative trends and fix historical pitfalls The opening of the network to new rail operators planned in 2021 should also contribute to increasing the number of passengers without building any new infrastructure Finally the rules for transport operators should be fair between air road and trains by integrating the environmental and social externalities and incentivising cleaner alternatives

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28

References

BMVI (2020) Trans-Europe Express 20 httpswwwbmvideSharedDocsENDocumentsKinnovative-rail-transport-overnight-21-09-2020pdf__blob=publicationFile (accessed 26 November 2020)

CERRE (2018) Track Access ChargesmdashCase Study Germany httpscerreorgsitescerrefiles180509_CERRE_TrackAccessCharges_CaseStudy_Germa-ny_Finalpdf (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2018) Comprehensive analysis of the existing cross-bor-der rail transport connections and missing links on the internal EU borders httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-detail-publicatione68ec381-62f7-11e8-ab9c-01aa75ed71a1language-en (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2019) Remaining Challenges for EU-wide integrated ticketing and payment services httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-de-tail-publicationaf05b3eb-df43-11e9-9c4e-01aa75ed71a1 (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Court of Auditors (2018) A European high-speed rail network not a reality but an ineffective patchwork ECA Special Report httpswwwecaeuropaeuenPagesDocItemaspxdid=46398 (accessed 26 Novem-ber 2020)

Eurostat (2020) Air passenger transport between the main airports (data sets avia_par_fr avia_par_pl avia_par_de avia_par_es avia_par_b) httpseceuropaeueurostatwebmainhome (accessed 26 November 2020)

Independent Regulatorrsquos Group (IRG) (2020) 8th IRG-Rail Market Monitoring Report httpsirg-raileuirgdocumentsmarket-monitoring (accessed 26 November 2020)

International Railway Journal (2020) Spain urged to rebalance high-speed and suburban rail development 7 August 2020 httpswwwrailjournalcompassengerhigh-speedspain-urged-to-rebalance-high-speed-and-subur-ban-rail-investment (accessed 26 November 2020)

Page 25: Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe...Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe How the 2021 European Year of Rail can˜support the˜European Green Deal and a

25ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

The opening of the market could also be an opportunity for incumbents such as SNCF As has been done with Thalys or Eurostar SNCF should initiate a part-nership with other national andor private companies to operate one or several of the European corridors that will be designed

It is quite possible to lsquostart smallrsquo operating only on the sections where infra-structure and rolling stock are compatible (ParismdashBerlin for example) and gradually extend the lines to reach full potential such as ParismdashWarsaw

3 Invest in night train rolling stock

Night trains can be a positive alternative to intra-Eu-ropean flights They can serve both domestic and international destinations However night trains in France have been on a downslide for several years The French government has recently announced that two new national train lines will be reopened This trend should be continued as the number of night trains gradually increases and night train lines extended to international destinations

For the night train renaissance France should in-vest euro150 million each year in rolling stock as the current stock is aging and far too limited This in-vestment will incentivise industries to produce new high-quality wagons designed for the night trains

At night some of the French track capacity is re-served for maintenance work and cannot be usedThis challenge can be overcome by starting with a small number of routes providing alternative routes when needed andor subsidising SNCF Reacute-seau so that maintenance work during the night can be lsquoun-optimisedrsquo that is take place over a longer period but without stopping traffic at night copy

Car

abin

er d

ream

stim

eco

m

26 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Spain do to boost European rail services

1 Refurbish upgrade and finalise cross-border connections between Spain Portugal and France

Cross-border connections between Spain and its neighbouring countries need an urgent upgrade to allow smooth fast and convenient passenger trips be-tween major southern European cities In the Basque country the rail lines between Hendaye and Irun should be quickly refurbished to avoid unneces-sary stop-overs and guarantee the integration of French high-speed network (ParismdashBordeauxmdashHendaye) with the Spanish high-speed line in construction between DonostiaBilbao and Vittoria (known as Basque Y) and then towards Madrid and other Spanish cities

In Central Pyrenees the historical line between Pau (Nouvelle Aquitaine) and Zaragoza (Aragon) via the monumental Canfranc International station should be relaunched by building the missing 30 km between Bedous (France) and Canfranc (Spain) This final work will increase freight and passenger connectiv-ity improve cross-border security and boost the economy of isolated regions highly dependent on tourism agriculture and industry

On the Atlantic side the cities of Lisbon and Madrid as well as Santiago de Com-postela (Galicia) and Porto need to be integrated into a high-performance network based on the upgrade of outdated rail tracks This connection would ensure the better cohesion and connection of geographically remote and pe-ripheral cities and regions with the rest of the European capitals

2 Relaunch night train services and long-distance conventional lines

Most of the night time and conventional trains between major southern Euro-pean cities (such as MadridmdashParis BarcelonamdashParis MadridmdashBarcelona Ma-dridmdashLisbon) have been abandoned in the last decade due to aggressive and unfair competition from low-cost airlines and long-distance buses However the climate crisis is pushing citizens towards low-carbon transport such as rail

27ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

Spanish citizens deserve affordable night trains and renovated long-distance trains that allow them to save time carbon and money avoiding expensive night hotels at origin and destination Relaunching cross-regional train lines is also a way to support safe inclusive and sustainable tourism in Mediterranean countries dramatically affected by the Covid crisis and related lockdowns

3 Increase the use of the network by opening the market and levelling the playing field

Spain has the longest high-speed network in Europe (2675 km) but it is the least used with only 13 billion passenger-kilometres in 2018 As a comparison France transported 49 billion passenger-km on a high-speed network of almost equal length (2548 km) When looking at passenger and freight rail together use intensity of the Spanish rail network (34 trains per day per route km) is also very low compared to the rest of Europe (146 in the Netherlands 96 in the UK 78 in Germany 43 in France)

As a large part of the high-speed infrastructure has been financed by the Eu the poor performance of rail in Spain is clearly an inefficient use of public money that should be solved by appropriate regulation and incentives The new law for sustainable mobility in the making is a unique opportunity to reverse those negative trends and fix historical pitfalls The opening of the network to new rail operators planned in 2021 should also contribute to increasing the number of passengers without building any new infrastructure Finally the rules for transport operators should be fair between air road and trains by integrating the environmental and social externalities and incentivising cleaner alternatives

copy A

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andr

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28

References

BMVI (2020) Trans-Europe Express 20 httpswwwbmvideSharedDocsENDocumentsKinnovative-rail-transport-overnight-21-09-2020pdf__blob=publicationFile (accessed 26 November 2020)

CERRE (2018) Track Access ChargesmdashCase Study Germany httpscerreorgsitescerrefiles180509_CERRE_TrackAccessCharges_CaseStudy_Germa-ny_Finalpdf (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2018) Comprehensive analysis of the existing cross-bor-der rail transport connections and missing links on the internal EU borders httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-detail-publicatione68ec381-62f7-11e8-ab9c-01aa75ed71a1language-en (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2019) Remaining Challenges for EU-wide integrated ticketing and payment services httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-de-tail-publicationaf05b3eb-df43-11e9-9c4e-01aa75ed71a1 (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Court of Auditors (2018) A European high-speed rail network not a reality but an ineffective patchwork ECA Special Report httpswwwecaeuropaeuenPagesDocItemaspxdid=46398 (accessed 26 Novem-ber 2020)

Eurostat (2020) Air passenger transport between the main airports (data sets avia_par_fr avia_par_pl avia_par_de avia_par_es avia_par_b) httpseceuropaeueurostatwebmainhome (accessed 26 November 2020)

Independent Regulatorrsquos Group (IRG) (2020) 8th IRG-Rail Market Monitoring Report httpsirg-raileuirgdocumentsmarket-monitoring (accessed 26 November 2020)

International Railway Journal (2020) Spain urged to rebalance high-speed and suburban rail development 7 August 2020 httpswwwrailjournalcompassengerhigh-speedspain-urged-to-rebalance-high-speed-and-subur-ban-rail-investment (accessed 26 November 2020)

Page 26: Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe...Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe How the 2021 European Year of Rail can˜support the˜European Green Deal and a

26 HOP ON THE TR AIN A R AIL RENAISSANCE FOR EUROPE

What can Spain do to boost European rail services

1 Refurbish upgrade and finalise cross-border connections between Spain Portugal and France

Cross-border connections between Spain and its neighbouring countries need an urgent upgrade to allow smooth fast and convenient passenger trips be-tween major southern European cities In the Basque country the rail lines between Hendaye and Irun should be quickly refurbished to avoid unneces-sary stop-overs and guarantee the integration of French high-speed network (ParismdashBordeauxmdashHendaye) with the Spanish high-speed line in construction between DonostiaBilbao and Vittoria (known as Basque Y) and then towards Madrid and other Spanish cities

In Central Pyrenees the historical line between Pau (Nouvelle Aquitaine) and Zaragoza (Aragon) via the monumental Canfranc International station should be relaunched by building the missing 30 km between Bedous (France) and Canfranc (Spain) This final work will increase freight and passenger connectiv-ity improve cross-border security and boost the economy of isolated regions highly dependent on tourism agriculture and industry

On the Atlantic side the cities of Lisbon and Madrid as well as Santiago de Com-postela (Galicia) and Porto need to be integrated into a high-performance network based on the upgrade of outdated rail tracks This connection would ensure the better cohesion and connection of geographically remote and pe-ripheral cities and regions with the rest of the European capitals

2 Relaunch night train services and long-distance conventional lines

Most of the night time and conventional trains between major southern Euro-pean cities (such as MadridmdashParis BarcelonamdashParis MadridmdashBarcelona Ma-dridmdashLisbon) have been abandoned in the last decade due to aggressive and unfair competition from low-cost airlines and long-distance buses However the climate crisis is pushing citizens towards low-carbon transport such as rail

27ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

Spanish citizens deserve affordable night trains and renovated long-distance trains that allow them to save time carbon and money avoiding expensive night hotels at origin and destination Relaunching cross-regional train lines is also a way to support safe inclusive and sustainable tourism in Mediterranean countries dramatically affected by the Covid crisis and related lockdowns

3 Increase the use of the network by opening the market and levelling the playing field

Spain has the longest high-speed network in Europe (2675 km) but it is the least used with only 13 billion passenger-kilometres in 2018 As a comparison France transported 49 billion passenger-km on a high-speed network of almost equal length (2548 km) When looking at passenger and freight rail together use intensity of the Spanish rail network (34 trains per day per route km) is also very low compared to the rest of Europe (146 in the Netherlands 96 in the UK 78 in Germany 43 in France)

As a large part of the high-speed infrastructure has been financed by the Eu the poor performance of rail in Spain is clearly an inefficient use of public money that should be solved by appropriate regulation and incentives The new law for sustainable mobility in the making is a unique opportunity to reverse those negative trends and fix historical pitfalls The opening of the network to new rail operators planned in 2021 should also contribute to increasing the number of passengers without building any new infrastructure Finally the rules for transport operators should be fair between air road and trains by integrating the environmental and social externalities and incentivising cleaner alternatives

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References

BMVI (2020) Trans-Europe Express 20 httpswwwbmvideSharedDocsENDocumentsKinnovative-rail-transport-overnight-21-09-2020pdf__blob=publicationFile (accessed 26 November 2020)

CERRE (2018) Track Access ChargesmdashCase Study Germany httpscerreorgsitescerrefiles180509_CERRE_TrackAccessCharges_CaseStudy_Germa-ny_Finalpdf (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2018) Comprehensive analysis of the existing cross-bor-der rail transport connections and missing links on the internal EU borders httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-detail-publicatione68ec381-62f7-11e8-ab9c-01aa75ed71a1language-en (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2019) Remaining Challenges for EU-wide integrated ticketing and payment services httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-de-tail-publicationaf05b3eb-df43-11e9-9c4e-01aa75ed71a1 (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Court of Auditors (2018) A European high-speed rail network not a reality but an ineffective patchwork ECA Special Report httpswwwecaeuropaeuenPagesDocItemaspxdid=46398 (accessed 26 Novem-ber 2020)

Eurostat (2020) Air passenger transport between the main airports (data sets avia_par_fr avia_par_pl avia_par_de avia_par_es avia_par_b) httpseceuropaeueurostatwebmainhome (accessed 26 November 2020)

Independent Regulatorrsquos Group (IRG) (2020) 8th IRG-Rail Market Monitoring Report httpsirg-raileuirgdocumentsmarket-monitoring (accessed 26 November 2020)

International Railway Journal (2020) Spain urged to rebalance high-speed and suburban rail development 7 August 2020 httpswwwrailjournalcompassengerhigh-speedspain-urged-to-rebalance-high-speed-and-subur-ban-rail-investment (accessed 26 November 2020)

Page 27: Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe...Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe How the 2021 European Year of Rail can˜support the˜European Green Deal and a

27ANNEx SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

Spanish citizens deserve affordable night trains and renovated long-distance trains that allow them to save time carbon and money avoiding expensive night hotels at origin and destination Relaunching cross-regional train lines is also a way to support safe inclusive and sustainable tourism in Mediterranean countries dramatically affected by the Covid crisis and related lockdowns

3 Increase the use of the network by opening the market and levelling the playing field

Spain has the longest high-speed network in Europe (2675 km) but it is the least used with only 13 billion passenger-kilometres in 2018 As a comparison France transported 49 billion passenger-km on a high-speed network of almost equal length (2548 km) When looking at passenger and freight rail together use intensity of the Spanish rail network (34 trains per day per route km) is also very low compared to the rest of Europe (146 in the Netherlands 96 in the UK 78 in Germany 43 in France)

As a large part of the high-speed infrastructure has been financed by the Eu the poor performance of rail in Spain is clearly an inefficient use of public money that should be solved by appropriate regulation and incentives The new law for sustainable mobility in the making is a unique opportunity to reverse those negative trends and fix historical pitfalls The opening of the network to new rail operators planned in 2021 should also contribute to increasing the number of passengers without building any new infrastructure Finally the rules for transport operators should be fair between air road and trains by integrating the environmental and social externalities and incentivising cleaner alternatives

copy A

leks

andr

Vor

obev

dre

amst

ime

com

28

References

BMVI (2020) Trans-Europe Express 20 httpswwwbmvideSharedDocsENDocumentsKinnovative-rail-transport-overnight-21-09-2020pdf__blob=publicationFile (accessed 26 November 2020)

CERRE (2018) Track Access ChargesmdashCase Study Germany httpscerreorgsitescerrefiles180509_CERRE_TrackAccessCharges_CaseStudy_Germa-ny_Finalpdf (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2018) Comprehensive analysis of the existing cross-bor-der rail transport connections and missing links on the internal EU borders httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-detail-publicatione68ec381-62f7-11e8-ab9c-01aa75ed71a1language-en (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2019) Remaining Challenges for EU-wide integrated ticketing and payment services httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-de-tail-publicationaf05b3eb-df43-11e9-9c4e-01aa75ed71a1 (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Court of Auditors (2018) A European high-speed rail network not a reality but an ineffective patchwork ECA Special Report httpswwwecaeuropaeuenPagesDocItemaspxdid=46398 (accessed 26 Novem-ber 2020)

Eurostat (2020) Air passenger transport between the main airports (data sets avia_par_fr avia_par_pl avia_par_de avia_par_es avia_par_b) httpseceuropaeueurostatwebmainhome (accessed 26 November 2020)

Independent Regulatorrsquos Group (IRG) (2020) 8th IRG-Rail Market Monitoring Report httpsirg-raileuirgdocumentsmarket-monitoring (accessed 26 November 2020)

International Railway Journal (2020) Spain urged to rebalance high-speed and suburban rail development 7 August 2020 httpswwwrailjournalcompassengerhigh-speedspain-urged-to-rebalance-high-speed-and-subur-ban-rail-investment (accessed 26 November 2020)

Page 28: Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe...Hop on the train: A˜Rail Renaissance for˜Europe How the 2021 European Year of Rail can˜support the˜European Green Deal and a

28

References

BMVI (2020) Trans-Europe Express 20 httpswwwbmvideSharedDocsENDocumentsKinnovative-rail-transport-overnight-21-09-2020pdf__blob=publicationFile (accessed 26 November 2020)

CERRE (2018) Track Access ChargesmdashCase Study Germany httpscerreorgsitescerrefiles180509_CERRE_TrackAccessCharges_CaseStudy_Germa-ny_Finalpdf (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2018) Comprehensive analysis of the existing cross-bor-der rail transport connections and missing links on the internal EU borders httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-detail-publicatione68ec381-62f7-11e8-ab9c-01aa75ed71a1language-en (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Commission (2019) Remaining Challenges for EU-wide integrated ticketing and payment services httpsopeuropaeuenpublication-de-tail-publicationaf05b3eb-df43-11e9-9c4e-01aa75ed71a1 (accessed 26 November 2020)

European Court of Auditors (2018) A European high-speed rail network not a reality but an ineffective patchwork ECA Special Report httpswwwecaeuropaeuenPagesDocItemaspxdid=46398 (accessed 26 Novem-ber 2020)

Eurostat (2020) Air passenger transport between the main airports (data sets avia_par_fr avia_par_pl avia_par_de avia_par_es avia_par_b) httpseceuropaeueurostatwebmainhome (accessed 26 November 2020)

Independent Regulatorrsquos Group (IRG) (2020) 8th IRG-Rail Market Monitoring Report httpsirg-raileuirgdocumentsmarket-monitoring (accessed 26 November 2020)

International Railway Journal (2020) Spain urged to rebalance high-speed and suburban rail development 7 August 2020 httpswwwrailjournalcompassengerhigh-speedspain-urged-to-rebalance-high-speed-and-subur-ban-rail-investment (accessed 26 November 2020)